Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) composite
materials employed for the number of years in space shuttle
program have also gained popularity in other variety of
industrial components requiring to be lightweight, but strong
enough to withstand harsh mechanical and thermal loading
conditions. A rigid structure is necessary to manufacture any
mechanical part using the composite materials. The sole goal of
this study is to investigate heat transfer phenomena and
temperature distribution of a carbon fiber block fabricated by
laminating epoxy-bonded carbon fiber sheets (prepreg) during
curing them to bind together into a solid block. Two different
curing methods of the hot press and autoclave were applied to
create the carbon fiber block. The heat transfer phenomena
including conduction, convection, and radiation during the
process must be better understood because inhomogeneous
temperature distribution over the carbon fiber block that affects
melting and solidifying of resin could cause serious defect of
the block. In this study, simulation studies were carried out for
evaluating the temperature distribution inside the CFRP
composite block, and the simulation results were validated with
experimental data.
