Influence of Large Framed Mold Placement in Autoclave on Heating Performance

For large composite parts manufactured by autoclave curing process, temperature uniformity of the mold is essential to ensure final part quality. This paper aims to investigate the influence of mold placement variation in autoclave on heating performance of a large framed mold and find the optimal mold placement parameters for improving the temperature uniformity and heating rate. Firstly, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based autoclave simulation model is established and validated, which offers reliable prediction of the mold temperature field and flow distribution in autoclave. Then, numerical experiments are performed based on the autoclave simulation model and response surface methodology (RSM) to establish relations between mold placement variables and responses including temperature uniformity and heating rate. Finally, using the established regression model, multi-objective optimization is conducted considering both temperature uniformity and heating rate. The optimal mold placement parameters are obtained successfully which improves the temperature uniformity significantly with little change in heating rate comparing to the commonly adopted mold placement approach. The strategies provided by mold placement optimization can be applied for various large framed molds in composite manufacturing improving the autoclave curing process.