Finite Element Modeling and Analysis of Curing and Pultrusion Processes

Curing process is modelled with the finite element software ANSYS Mechanical examining the transient heat conduction problem. A temperature distribution is obtained for each time step and the species equation is solved outside the software using the control volume method to obtain the degree of cure at each nodal point. An effect of the convection and exothermic terms on the temperature is computed from the known temperatures determined at the previous time step. Pultrusion process is modelled using the same algorithm, as it was developed for the curing process, adding the movement of pultruded material in the examined problem by shifting the temperature and degree of cure fields after each calculation step. Another simulation algorithm developed for the pultrusion modelling is based on the fluid dynamic finite element software ANSYS CFX. Process is analysed as transient and the cure reaction is implemented as an additional variable in this algorithm