TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION DETERMINATION OF THERMOPLASTIC COMPOSITES SAMPLES IN BIAS EXTENSION TESTS USING A DIGITAL TWIN

Designing a production process such as thermoforming for thermoplastic composites might be challenging as it requires material characteristics at high temperatures. Material characterization tests (e.g., bias extension) in the molten state can encounter several difficulties, one of the most important ones is maintaining a uniform temperature distribution on the sample. Accordingly, during this research, a set of thermal tests has been initially done at different temperature levels. During these tests, the temperature was measured at several locations. Next, we developed a finite element model for both the sample and the clamp. In the final step, the boundary conditions of the FE model have been determined by coupling the experimental results and the numerical model. Results show the strong dependency of the sample temperature gradient on the clamps, which has been ignored in the previous studies. Moreover, a sensitivity study is done to select the best location for the temperature sensor for future studies.