Exploiting temperature measurements for cure monitoring of FRP composites. Applications with thermocouples and Infrared thermography

Spiridon Konstantopoulos, Maximilian Tonejc, Alexander Maier, Ralf Schledjewski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The curing behavior of a fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite part is interesting for both the industrial and scientific community for it is related to process optimization, quality upgrade and material characterization. The study at hand focuses on the potential of temperature measurements as a means to monitor curing; kinetic analysis which conventionally is being done for small neat resin samples in a thermally stable environment (laboratory instruments), is in this study implemented for actual scale composite samples in an environment with significant thermal gradients (manufacturing). To ensure the success of this transition live temperature data and kinetic parameters derived from DSC of composite samples were used as input to the kinetic equations. Process monitoring with thermocouples that was compared with dielectric constant monitoring and conventional kinetic analysis confirmed the validity of the method. An application with infrared thermography determined the impact of heat insulators within the composite (e.g. delaminations) on the superficial curing degree.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1015
Number of pages1026
JournalJournal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites
Volume34
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Keywords

  • Cure monitoring
  • Infrared thermography
  • non-destructive testing
  • kinetic models
  • delamination detection

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