A Multi-Zoned Self-Resistance Electric Heating Method for Curing Irregular Fiber Reinforced Composite Parts

Abstract

Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) have been widely applied in various industries due to their outstanding properties. As a promising curing technology for FRP parts, the self-resistance electric (SRE) heating method has attracted plenty of attention. However, it is difficult for the SRE heating method to uniformly cure the FRP parts with irregular structures. In this paper, a multi-zoned SRE heating method is proposed, in which the FRP part is divided into several heating zones and the temperature of each zone is regulated independently. A multi-channel electrical voltage control system is developed to realise the multi-zoned SRE heating of a wing-shaped FRP part, in which a rapid zone-based temperature control responsiveness is achieved, and the maximum temperature difference is reduced from 60 °C to less than 10 °C, reaching 2.5 °C at its best. This work presents an alternative for the high efficiency and energy-saving curing process of FRP parts.