An Improvement in Thermal Modelling of Automated Tape Placement Process

The thermoplastic tape placement process offers the possibility of manufacturing large laminated composite parts with all kinds of geometries (double curved i.e.). This process is based on the fusion bonding of a thermoplastic tape on a substrate. It has received a growing interest during last years because of its non autoclave abilities. In order to control and optimize the quality of the manufactured part, we need to predict the temperature field throughout the processing of the laminate. In this work, we focus on a thermal modeling of this process which takes in account the imperfect bonding existing between the different layers of the substrate by introducing thermal contact resistance in the model. This study is leaning on experimental results which inform us that the value of the thermal resistance evolves with temperature and pressure applied on the material.