Characterization and modeling of the geometrical distortion of thermoplastic composites

Abstract

The composite material application at several industrial segments has been increasing significantly throughout the last years. This trend is due mostly to the fact that these materials present high specific resistance and rigidity, excellent fatigue performance, corrosion resistance allowing fabrication of complex geometry structural components, significantly reducing the costs and number of parts comprising the overall structure. Moreover, there is a world trend of searching for eco-friendly materials; and such is the case of thermoplastics. Those materials also possess easier recyclability and reparability. Currently the aeronautical and automotive industries see in thermoplastic composites a good material alternative for structural use. However, for their application to be viable, it is of utmost importance que this material's application, when substituting already market available materials, is not over-expensive. Therefore, with the goal of dominating and optimizing fabrication techniques and further to predict the material's behavior during the consolidation process, the current work presents a proposal to develop a numerical model that allows the analysis of manufactured structural components using thermoplastic laminates via the thermoforming process. With the aid of this model, the fabrication parameters can be optimized so that the desired mechanical properties can be reached. The analyses, developed during the project's execution time, will be validated by experiments. In addition, structural thermoplastic based components can be manufactured by using processes already developed by the industry. This work's proposal is innovative, of academic and industrial interest, and possesses a potential impact so that there may lead to a considerable number of publications, technical works and patents, contributing to the progress of this line of research at ITA and IPT. (AU)