Abstract
New analytical and numerical optical models are proposed for the laser assisted tape winding (LATW) of thermoplastic composites. The irradiation and reflection of the laser beam directly influence the heat flux and temperature distribution during the consolidation, hence the laser optics must be described and understood well for improved bonding quality. For the first time, a two-dimensional (2D) analytical solution is derived for the laser light distribution and reflection by combining the principle of energy conversation with unpolarized Fresnel equations. In the more comprehensive numerical model, a 3D ray tracing approach is incorporated in which a novel non-specular reflection model is developed predicting the anisotropic reflective behaviour of the composite. Heat flux distributions for the substrate and incoming tape are calculated. The analytical and numerical model results are shown to correspond. The non-specular and scattering reflection yields in a larger illuminated area with lower intensity for substrate and tape.
Highlights
Laser assisted tape winding (LATW) is an automated process to produce tubular or tube-like continuous fibre-reinforced parts by winding a tape around a mandrel or liner
To facilitate visualization and comparison with the numerical model, the 2D model results are projected in 3D, i.e. the 2D analytical model is applied in the x-direction to get the results in 3D by considering different objects in the x-direction
Numerical and analytical optical models were developed for simulation of the LATW process
Summary
Laser assisted tape winding (LATW) is an automated process to produce tubular or tube-like continuous fibre-reinforced parts by winding a tape around a mandrel or liner. The non-specular reflection behaviour was considered in [5,6] using a micro-half-cylinder approach to simulate the laser irradiance scatter in 3D for flat substrate This included the actual laser power distribution and required a large number of rays. The main aim is to develop a reasonably fast optical model which enables in-depth understanding of how laser irradiance and reflectance influence the heat flux, which is a prerequisite to describe and predict temperature and bonding quality for in-line process control of LATW processes. The BRDF is formulated using microfacet theory employed with the ray tracing approach This proposed numerical model (Section 2) can deal with any definition of the laser power distribution and 3D geometry for the LATW process. The main advantage of the analytical optical model is its very low computational time, which is desired for developing in-line process control strategies and process optimization [12]
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