In situ consolidation for thermoplastic tape placement process is not obvious

Thermoplastic tape placement process receive a growing interest for its large parts and out of autoclave possibilities. This process is based on the fusion bonding of the thermoplastic matrix. Thanks to a heating source and a compaction roller, a new tape is welded in continuity on the already deposited substrate. To make 'good' laminated parts, you need to achieve efficient bonding between material layers, and avoid material degradation. As we want to define a process window for this application, we need to know temperature and pressure, in every point of the part, at every instant of its forming steps. In this work, we propose an original thermal modelling of this problem which takes in account the non perfect thermal transfers existing between material layers to compute the temperature field in the laminate during its forming stage. Because of the specific geometry of the problem (thin tapes with large length way), we propose a numerical resolution with a PGD (Proper Generalized Decomposition) method. The numerical results are validated by experimental measurements. Then thanks to the temperature history, we calculate healing degree, and degradation so as to define a process window.