Simulation of temperature and curing profiles in pultruded composite rods

Pultrusion is one of many composite manufacturing techniques with potential for rapid and cost-effective production. In this paper, an iterative procedure is developed for simulation of the pultrusion process for polymer-matrix composites. The procedure involves both heat-transfer and curing sub-models. A two-dimensional finite-element model was applied to simulate heat transfer and temperature profiles inside the die during the pultrusion process, and this was coupled with a numerical approxiamtion of the curing kinetics for thermosetting polymer resins. Major pultrusion mechanisms (heat transfer and degree of curing) can be simulated for two-dimensional pultruded polymer-matrix composites. The pultrusion process of As4/Epon 9420/9470/537 carbon-fibre/epoxy composite rods was simulated and the results compared with those obtained in a previous publication. The approach developed in this work can easily be adopted to tailor the two-dimensional pultrusion processes in practical applications.