Examination of heat transfer during autoclave processing of polymer composites

The University of Manitoba and its research partners are developing an Advanced Process Control System for optimization of autoclave processing of composite parts. The objectives of this thesis focussed on two aspects of this APCS: the development of software for predicting thermal boundary conditions for a composite part in an autoclave, and assisting with the development of an optimization module. Both objectives have been realized; the first objective through the development of the SIMCLAVE software and the ARS model, and the second objective through the successful adaptation of the genetic algorithm code obtained from NRC. Development of these softwares involved experimentation and simulation. The modelling of the thermal boundary conditions was broken into two components, predicting the heat transfer coefficient along the boundary of the part (using SIMCLAVE) and the autoclave air temperature as a response to the autoclave temperature and pressure control instructions (using ARS). Development of SIMCLAVE required modelling of the effect of XY position in the autoclave, the inclination angles gamma and beta for a flat plate, and the effect of the vacuum bag and tool eggcrating on heat transfer. Also the effect of inter-part shadowing was quantified in this study. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...