She / Her
PhD Candidate
Project: Repair of Thermoplastic Composites for Aerospace
LinkedIn julieta.barroetarobles [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Mail) Publications
Supervisor: Prof. Pascal Hubert
Thermoplastic composite materials are often the material of choice due to their high fracture toughness, high strength-to-weight ratios, impact resistance and fatigue performance when compared to their metallic and thermoset composite counterparts. In addition, they can be melted, re-melted, and reprocessed. It is due to these advantageous properties that the industry has the interest to use these materials in aerospace applications. However, to fully take advantage of these materials and to expand their utilization, a methodology is necessary to repair thermoplastic composite structures. By doing so, it would be possible to make the entire product life cycle more cost-effective and sustainable by repairing a component rather than fully replacing it. In addition, if a part could be repaired on the field, it would be possible to diminish aircraft down-time.
This research projects aims to investigate and develop a methodology using induction heating to repair carbon fibre (CF) poly ether ether ketone (PEEK) thermoplastic composite structures with amorphous material poly (ether)imide (PEI) at the interface (i.e., the ThermabondTM process).
This research project will use induction welding to join CF/PEEK parts using the ThermabondTM process.
At first, resistance welding was used to test the potential to use this methodology for repair on single-lap-shear specimens. Then, using PEI and PEEK polymer films, a healing study was conducted using a parallel plate rheometer to produce process maps which can be adapted to simulation. Then, different part configurations were studied to evaluate the potential of induction welding for repair. A proof-of-concept geometry was proposed and simulation was used to obtain the process parameters required to conduct a repair using thermoplastic induction welding.
This project is expected to propose a method to conduct thermoplastic composite repair using induction welding.
From ICCM 2023, Belfast, NI