Experiments and numerical simulations of flow field and heat transfer coefficients inside an autoclave model

Abstract

Today’s aerospace industrial first priority is the quality improvement of the composite material parts with the reduction of the manufacturing time in order to increase their quality/cost ratio. A fabrication method that could meet these specifications especially for large parts is the autoclave curing process. In fact the autoclave molding ensures the thermal control of the composite parts during the whole curing cycle. However the geometry of the tools as well as their positioning in the autoclave induce non uniform and complex flows around composite parts. This heterogeneity implies non-uniform heat transfers which can directly impact on part quality. One of the main challenges is therefore to describe the flow field inside an autoclave as well as the convective heat transfer from the heated pressurized gas to the composite part and the mold. For this purpose, and given the technical issues associated with instrumentation and measurements in actual autoclaves, an autoclave model was designed and then manufactured based on similarity laws. This tool allows the measurement of the flow field around representative real industrial molds using the PIV technique and the characterization of the heat transfer thanks to thermal instrumentation. The experimental results are then compared with those derived from numerical simulations using a commercial RANS CFD code. This study aims at developing a semi-empirical approach for the prediction of the heat transfer coefficient around the parts and therefore predicts its thermal history during the process with a view of optimization.