An Induction Curing Technique for Cfrp Laminate Via Magnetic Particle-Induced In-Situ Heating

Abstract

Curing high-performance CFRP structures with economical and energy-efficient techniques other than oven or autoclave is important for the widespread application of the composite. In this work, a novel magnetic particle-induced in-situ heating method to cure CFRP laminates with various layup sequences was proposed. Heating characteristics, mechanical properties and porosities of [0]8, [0/90]4s and [0/45/90/-45]2s CFRP laminates were experimentally investigated. Results showed that all the laminates can undergo a consistent, layup-independent two-staged heating curve via regulating the magnetic field intensity. Under 5.5h curing time and 13wt% magnetic particle loading, flexural strength and modulus of three stacking-sequenced CFRP laminates cured by induction heating were 12.4%, 6.3%, 21.9% and 9.9%, 10.9%, 5.4% higher than oven cured counterparts. While porosity slightly increased by 0.85%, 0.62%, 0.56%. Although detailed parameterized research should be conducted, the proposed new curing method showed great potential for fabricating advanced CFRP composite structures without autoclave or oven.

Keywords: Particle-reinforced composites, Polymer-matrix composites (PMCs), mechanical properties, Porosity/Voids, Curing