Production of Low Cost Carbon-Fiber through Energy Optimization of Stabilization Process.

Gelayol Golkarnarenji,Hamid Khayyam,Abbas Milani,Khashayar Badii,Minoo Naebe,Reza Jazar

doi:10.3390/ma11030385

Abstract

To produce high quality and low cost carbon fiber-based composites, the optimization of the production process of carbon fiber and its properties is one of the main keys. The stabilization process is the most important step in carbon fiber production that consumes a large amount of energy and its optimization can reduce the cost to a large extent. In this study, two intelligent optimization techniques, namely Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), were studied and compared, with a limited dataset obtained to predict physical property (density) of oxidative stabilized PAN fiber (OPF) in the second zone of a stabilization oven within a carbon fiber production line. The results were then used to optimize the energy consumption in the process. The case study can be beneficial to chemical industries involving carbon fiber manufacturing, for assessing and optimizing different stabilization process conditions at large.

Highlights

Composite materials are becoming increasingly important in a wide range of industries.An advanced composite material is made of a fibrous material system, such as carbon fiber yarns embedded in a resin matrix; the production process of carbon fiber and its properties are the main keys to high quality and low cost composites
Two models were developed for prediction of the oxidative stabilized PAN fiber (OPF) density (g·m−3 ), based on the selected main controlling process parameters: temperature (◦ C), space velocity (m/h), and stretching ratio
For Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Fitnet was used as the function fitting feed forward neural network

Summary

Introduction

Composite materials are becoming increasingly important in a wide range of industries. An advanced composite material is made of a fibrous material system, such as carbon fiber yarns embedded in a resin matrix; the production process of carbon fiber and its properties are the main keys to high quality and low cost composites. Carbon fiber as a part of advanced composite materials is widely used in industries. Stabilization, carbonization, and graphitization are the three consecutive steps in carbon fiber production. Temperature, Time, and Tension (TTT) are the main controlling parameters in the thermal stabilization process. Stabilization step is the most complex, costly and energy consuming step. Production quality and energy optimization of this step are deemed important to produce high quality and low cost composites

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