Search

Thermoplastic composites are widely considered in structural parts. In this paper attention is paid to squeeze flow of continuous fiber laminates. In the case of unidirectional prepregs, the ply constitutive equation is modeled as a transversally isotropic fluid, that must satisfy both the fiber inextensibility as well as the fluid incompressibility. When laminate is squeezed the flow kinematics exhibits a complex dependency along the laminate thickness requiring a detailed velocity description through the thickness. In a former work the solution making use of an in-plane-out-of-plane separated representation within the PGD – Poper Generalized Decomposition – framework was successfully accomplished when both kinematic constraints (inextensibility and in-compressibility) were introduced using a penalty formulation for circumventing the LBB constraints. However, such a formulation makes difficult the calculation on fiber tractions and compression forces, the last required in rheological characterizations. In this paper the former penalty formulation is substituted by a mixed formulation that makes use of two Lagrange multipliers, while addressing the LBB stability conditions within the separated representation framework, questions never until now addressed.

Microwave (MW) technology relies on volumetric heating. Thermal energy is transferred to the material that can absorb it at specific frequencies. In this paper, a coupled thermic and electromagnetic model is proposed in order to simulate the emerging process of microwave heating for composite materials. Solving the problem in a laminated composite material requires a high degree of discretization in the thickness direction which is made possible by introducing the in-plane-out-of-plane decomposition approach using the Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD).