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Differentiated heating of CFRP composite structures wirelessly using microwave and electromagnetic resonators

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Abstract

Developing new heating techniques is crucial for manufacturing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite parts, as these kinds of components usually need to be chemically cured or physically consolidated under specific temperature fields. Recently, great attention has been paid to differentiated heating methods since they can exert a uniform temperature field on the component and its tooling which always have uneven thermal mass distributions. Moreover, they also offer the possibility of improving the curing or consolidation quality through customized temperature fields. In this paper, we report a differentiated microwave heating method based on pre-designed electromagnetic resonators which has the advantages of wireless connections, quick response, and precise temperature control. To verify the idea, four kinds of resonators with rectangular copper patterns on polyimide films of different thicknesses were first designed and fabricated, making the CFRP laminate have an absorbance of 28%, 47%, 70%, and 81% at different locations. Then, a differentiated heating performance was validated under a fixed microwave power of 1200 W where the temperature of those locations was stabilized at 52.8 °C, 69.1 °C, 86.2 °C, and 93.8 °C, respectively. On this basis, a simulation model with a prediction accuracy of more than 90% was established to model the relationship between the structural parameters of the resonator and the required microwave heating performance. Finally, as a potential application, the proposed method was used to achieve a uniform heating process of a variable-thickness structure. Compared with the overall heating method, the temperature difference was reduced by 82%.

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Funding

This research is supported by the Major Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52090052), the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52105364), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (51925505).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Precision and Micro-Manufacturing Technology, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Yuexian Wang, Jing Zhou, Zexin Zhu, Pan Wang & Xiaozhong Hao

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  1. Yuexian Wang
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  2. Jing Zhou
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Contributions

Yuexian Wang: conceptualization, validation, visualization, investigation, and writing—original draft. Jing Zhou: supervision, methodology, writing—reviewing and editing, project administration, and funding acquisition. Zexin Zhu: supervision and writing—reviewing and editing. Pan Wang: investigation and validation. Xiaozhong Hao: project administration and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Jing Zhou.

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Wang, Y., Zhou, J., Zhu, Z. et al. Differentiated heating of CFRP composite structures wirelessly using microwave and electromagnetic resonators. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 131, 6103–6114 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-024-13356-7

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