Experimental and numerical investigations of induction heating for Ti-6Al-4V sheets and epoxy/carbon fiber composite laminates

The objective of this study is to present the electromagnetic and the thermal multi-field coupling model of the induction heating process for numerical simulation based on the finite element method. One of the most important difficulties encountered in the induction heating processes is to ensure homogeneous temperature distribution throughout the part. To improve the uniform temperature distribution in the sheet, the induction heating system is modelled with the ANSYS software taking into account some operational and geometrical parameters including current density and coupling distance between induction coil and sheet. Induction heating simulations were performed for all simulations at 20 kHz frequency ANSYS Maxwell. The numerical model has been verified by the conducted experiments for Ti6Al4V at the current of 50 A, 125 A, and 200 A, and the 1 mm and 3 mm gap distances. The relative error of the maximum temperature between the experiment and simulation was found around 14 % recorded at 25 s measurements. In addition, the effects of the current and the frequencies on the induction heating were evaluated by the verified numerical model for epoxy/carbon fiber (UD prepreg) and epoxy/carbon fiber (Woven prepreg) plates. The results show that the induction heating model is suitable and efficient to determine the temperature distribution within the thin plates by the finite element method.