Original Article

Journal of Reinforced Plastics

and Composites

Modeling and optimization of 2017, Vol. 36(8) 579–592

! The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0731684416685415
composite tape winding process journals.sagepub.com/home/jrp

Tao Yu, Yaoyao Shi, Xiaodong He, Chao Kang and Bo Deng

Abstract
The prepreg tape winding product of thermoset composite has been widely used in aerospace industry due to the
favorable performance. The manufacturing process is the key to ensure the quality of product. This study is focused on
the theoretical analysis of prepreg tape winding process. The mathematical model of thermal and consolidation process is
established firstly. The influence mechanism of the major process parameters including heating temperature, consolida-
tion force and winding velocity on consolidation quality is subsequently studied based on the simulation results. And the
tape winding experiments and interlaminar shear strength tests are conducted to validate the predictive capability of the
theoretical model. Moreover, the coupling role between the process parameters is explained based on the predicted
model. In order to control the quality of winding product, the optimization of winding process is proposed, and the
three-dimension process window of parameter settings is obtained.

Keywords
Composite tape winding process, process parameters, interlaminar bond strength, parameter optimization, 3D process
window

influenced the mechanical properties of the composites

Introduction
Composite tape winding products have been widely
applied in the aerospace engine components such as
motor case and exhaust nozzle in which a high level
of specific strength, specific stiffness and high tempera-
ture performance is required.1–3 As the amount of com-
posite products increasing, more attention to the
product quality has been paid.4–7 The quality of wind-
ing products not only relies on the performance of com-
posite tape but also on the manufacturing process.8,9
Thus, the parameters selection of winding process is
the key to improve the quality of winding product in
the case of stable performance of prepreg tape.
Nowadays, tremendous research on composite man-
ufacturing equipment has been proposed,10–12 while
lots of efforts toward investigating composite manufac-
turing process also have been devoted. Aim at improve
the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of carbon fiber/
epoxy composites, the effect of the processing param-
eters of the cured composites on ILSS is investigated by
Hongwei and Kaixi. The significant factors which
are determined and optimized by Taguchi method-
ology. The results found that the content of curing
agent and temperature were equally the primary signifi-
cant factors in controlling the ILSS of the composites.13
For the thermoplastic automated tape placement pro-
cess, a series of process models are integrated into a
simulation tool to optimize the process parameters.14
In order to improve the industrialization of the thermo-
plastic tape placement, the critical parameters of gov-
erning the resulting laminate quality are identified.15
According to Tauseef and Bijan, the robotic fiber place-
ment process parameters are analyzed and optimized.
The Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated
Manufacturing Technology, Ministry of Education, Northwestern
Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
Corresponding author:
Yaoyao Shi, Northwestern Polytechnical University, 127 Youyi West road,
Xi’an 710072, China.
Email: shiyy@nwpu.edu.cn
580
Many experiments have been conducted to analyze fiber
laying head velocity, gas torch temperature and fiber
consolidation force. Moreover, the process is optimized
using response surface method.16 Comer et al.17 evalu-
ated the in situ laser-assisted automated tape placement
(ATP) and autoclave consolidation processes of the CF/
PEEK laminate specimens. The laser-asisted automated
tape placement (LATP) processing parameters were
chosen based on a small number of preliminary trials.
The results show that the laminates produced by LATP
performed better than the autoclaved laminates in terms
of interlaminar toughness (134%) but performed less
well in terms of flexural strength (68%), ILSS (70%),
flexural stiffness (88%) and open-hole-compression
strength (78%). Regarding the thermoplastic tape wind-
ing process, the studies of processing conditions on con-
solidation quality have been investigated. The steady-
state finite element method model is developed based on
heat transfer and autohesion mechanisms. The simula-
tion and experimental results show that installing an
insulated ring on the winding mandrel can effectively
improve the consolidation quality, and the optimum
value for heated distance ratio was recommended to
be 3.5 for the CF/PEI tape winding process.18
As can be observed from the previous studies,
research of autoclave curing process, filament winding
and fiber/tape placement process has been widely inves-
tigated. However, in the prepreg tape winding process,
the study on the influence mechanism of process par-
ameters is few. In practice, the selection of process par-
ameters in winding process mainly relies on experience
rather than theoretical basis. Taking the vary of mater-
ial, characteristic and size of composite prepreg tape
into account, experimental study is time consuming
Figure 1. NC tape winding machine.
Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 36(8)
and results in high costs. Therefore, this paper focuses
on the theoretical analysis of thermoset prepreg tape
winding process and parameters optimization. The
major work includes: (1) The major process parameters
which influence the ILSS of winding products are deter-
mined by winding process analysis; (2) The thermal
model and consolidation model of tape winding process
are established; (3) The influence mechanism of the pro-
cess parameters including heating temperature, consoli-
dation force and winding velocity on interlaminar bond
strength is studied; (4) The tape winding experiments
and ILSS tests are conducted to validate the predictive
capability of the theoretical model; (5) The coupling
mechanism between the parameters and the optimiza-
tion for prepreg tape winding process is proposed to
obtain the optimized three-dimension (3D) process
window. The contribution of our study lies in the fact
that the tape winding process theoretical model can be
used for parameters selection to significantly improve
the ILSS of winding products.
Tape winding process
The numerical control (NC) tape winding machine is
the major equipment for composite tape winding prod-
uct molding as shown in Figure 1. The primary func-
tion is that the resin-impregnated tape is wound on the
mandrel according to the desired trajectory through
specific mechanical motion and control.
In the winding process, the prepreg tape is loaded on
the tray of winding vehicle. The magnetic powder brake
can provide tension for tape, and the partial adjust
mechanism can prevent deviation. After heating by hot
compaction roller, the tape enters the molten region and
Yu et al.
bond with the laminated layer. The cylinder applies posi-
tive pressure to ensure the tape intimate contact with
laminated layer, and the bubble in molten region can
be extruded by roller to reduce the porosity of the prod-
uct. Composite prepreg tape winding process is illu-
strated by Figure 2. It can be seen that the interlaminar
bond quality of winding product is mainly determined by
the bonding strength between layers. Therefore, in order
to improve the interlaminar bond strength of product,
the winding process model is molded through theoret-
ical analysis in this study, and the optimization of process
parameters is conducted on this basis.
Thermal model
Heat transfer submodel
In the winding process, the tape is wound on the man-
drel after passing the constant temperature hot roller as
Figure 2. Schematics of composite prepreg tape winding process.
Figure 3. Schematics of tape heating process.
581
shown in Figure 3. Hot consolidation roller surface is
directly contacted to the prepreg tape. Heat is trans-
ferred from hot roller to tape by heat conduction.
The viscosity of resin matrix is decreased due to heat-
ing, and the molten state resin can combine with the
laminates.
In the heating process, tape temperature changes in
the direction of thickness. Therefore, this process can
be regarded as one-dimensional unsteady heat conduc-
tion process. Assuming the tape is fully in contact with
the hot roller, the thermal differential equation can be
written as
 
@T  @2 T 1 @T
¼ þ ðr0 5 r 5 r , t 4 0Þ ð1Þ
@t c @r2 r @r
where T is temperature and t is time. The dens-
ity , specific heat capacity c and thermal
582 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 36(8)

conductivity  of composite prepreg tape are deter- resin m is related with degree of cure  and tem-
mined by19 perature T
 n
 ¼ vm m þ ð1  vm Þf ð2Þ C1 ðT  Tg0 Þ g
m ðT, Þ ¼ g exp  ð9Þ
C2 þ T  Tg0 g  
c ¼ mm cm þ ð1  mm Þcf ð3Þ
h pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  where g is the viscosity at the glass transition, Tg0 is the
i
¼ 1  1  vm þ 1= 1=ð1  vm Þ þ m =f  1 m glass-transition temperature of the uncured system, g
is the degree of cure at the gel point and C1 and C2 are
ð4Þ constants that are determined by the rearranged WLF
  1 equation.21 Since the heating time of tape is very short
vm ¼ 1 þ m =f ðð1=mm Þ  1Þ ð5Þ (<2 s) in winding process, the curing reaction of resin
can be ignored. However, a certain degree of initial
where m, cm and m are the density, specific heat curing will be caused during the tape storage process
capacity and thermal conductivity of resin matrix, before winding. If the initial curing degree is 0, the
and f, cf and f are the density, specific heat cap- relationship of the resin viscosity and the heating tem-
acity and thermal conductivity of fiber. vm and mm perature can be written as
are the volume fraction and mass fraction of
matrix.  n
C1 ðT  Tg0 Þ g
Since the temperature of tape is identical to the room m ðTÞ ¼ g exp  ð10Þ
C2 þ T  Tg0 g  0
temperature before heating, the initial condition can be
expressed as
Consolidation model
Tjt¼0 ¼ T0 ð r0  r  r Þ ð6Þ
Intimate contact submodel
where T0 is the room temperature and r0 is the radius of Due to the roughness of the tape surface, the micro-
hot compaction roller. r is the thickness of tape plus r0. geometry texture of the interface is irregular. During
When the tape passes the hot roller, one side of the tape the winding process, the initially irregular surface of
contacts with the surface of hot roller, and the other tape and laminated layer becomes smooth due to the
side generates convective heat transfer with air. Thus, applied pressure and temperature. The intimate contact
the boundary conditions are is produced between adjacent surfaces as shown in
8 Figure 4.
>
< Tjr¼r0 ¼ Ts ðt 4 0Þ Figure 5(a) illustrates the micrograph of prepreg
@T   ð7Þ tape cross section. We represent the irregular surface
>
:  @r ¼ h Tjr¼r T0
r¼r by a surface consisting of a series of rectangles as
shown in Figure 5(b), and unit width is assumed for
the tape. The degree of intimate contact is defined as22
where Ts is the surface temperature of hot roller and h
is convective heat transfer coefficient.
b
In heating process, the heating time of tape is related Dic ¼ ð11Þ
w0 þ b0
with winding velocity v and roller radius r0

r0
t¼ ð8Þ
v

Therefore, in the case of constant heating tempera-

ture, the temperature of tape is determined by
winding velocity when the tape coming into the
molten region.

Viscosity submodel
The viscosity of resin matrix is decreased by heating
to improve the bond strength of laminated layer.
Based on the study in,20 the viscosity of thermoset Figure 4. Schematics of intimate contact.
Yu et al. 583

Figure 5. (a) Micrograph of prepreg tape cross section and illustration of the control volume used in calculating mass flow and (b)
micrograph of prepreg tape cross section and illustration of the control volume used in calculating mass flow.

where b0 and b denote the initial (t ¼ 0) and instantan- where m specifies the viscosity of the resin matrix, p is
eous (at time t) widths of each rectangular element and the pressure inside the element and pe stands for the
w0 is the initial distance between two adjacent elements. pressure between two adjacent elements. Thus, the
Since the volume of each element is constant in this boundary conditions can be written as
process, thus
db b
ða0 þ c0 Þb0 ¼ ða0 þ cÞb ð12Þ p ¼ pe and u ¼ at ¼ ð15Þ
dt 2
Based on the hydrodynamic theory and the law of
conservation of mass, the control volume of width d The pressure applied to the outside of each element
can be written as must be equal to its inside pressure as

du dc Z b=2
c þ ¼0 ð13Þ
d dt pa ðb0 þ w0 Þ ¼ ðp  pe Þd ð16Þ
b=2

where is the coordinate along the interface and t is Based on the equations (13) to (15), one can obtain
time. The average velocity u is
 2 !
2
c dp 6m dc 2 b
u ¼ ð14Þ p  pe ¼ 3  ð17Þ
12m d c dt 2
584 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 36(8)

Figure 7. Schematics of the micro-geometry texture with the

optimal degree of intimate contact.

the degree of intimate contact degradation. As shown

in Figure 8, the degree of intimate contact can be writ-
Figure 6. The consolidation process. ten as

By combining equations (16) and (17), it can be m

Dic ¼ 1  vf1 ð21Þ
derived as b0 þ w0

dc b3 where m is the contact length of the fiber-matrix mix-

pa ðb0 þ w0 Þ ¼ m ð18Þ
dt c3 ture. vf1 is the fiber volume fraction in the fiber-matrix
mixture.
Combining equations (12) and (18), and then inte-
During the pressing process, since the pressing time
grating yields
is very short, the deformation of fiber-matrix rectangu-
Z Z lar element can be regarded as elastic deformation. As
tc
pa c
ða0 þ c0 Þ3 b30
ðb0 þ w0 Þ dt ¼ dc ð19Þ shown in Figure 8, the resin matrix between two adja-
0 m c0 ða0 þ cÞ3 c3 cent elements is supplanted from the aperture gap,
which is produced by fiber weaving.
where tc is the pressing time related with winding vel-
ocity v and pressing length lc as shown in Figure 6, and The aperture gaps can be seen as an elongated hole,
the relationship can be expressed as and the resin flow rate of each hole can be described as

lc d4
tc ¼ ð20Þ q¼
p ð22Þ
v 128m l

where d is the diameter of hole, l is the hole length and

The pressing length lc can be measured directly in the
p is the differential pressure across the hole. q is the
winding process. Combining equations (11), (12) and resin flow rate of each elongated hole
(19), and substituting the model parameters, the
degree of intimate contact can be obtained by numer- da
ical solution. q ¼ ð b0 þ w 0 Þ ð23Þ
dt
In the case of moderate pressure and matrix viscos-
ity, because of the extrusion and flow of matrix, the gap In the extrusion process, the elastic deformation
between two adjacent elements is filled with resin force of fiber-matrix rectangular element is
matrix. The desired optimal state is achieved as
shown in Figure 7. In this case, b is equal to b0 þ w0, a0  a
and the degree of intimate contact Dic is 100%. F ¼ Ef m ð24Þ
a0
If the pressure or temperature is further increased,
the matrix on the element projection will be supplanted
Since the volume of each fiber-matrix rectangular
and the fiber-matrix mixture of two surfaces contact
element is constant, therefore
with each other. Since the bonding force is not present
on the interface when fiber contact with each other, the
contact of the fiber in the fiber-matrix mixture causes a0 m0 ¼ am ð25Þ
Yu et al. 585

Figure 8. Schematics of the micro-geometry texture with excessive temperature and pressure.
Combining equations (22) to (25), the force balance where Dau denotes the degree of autohesion, tw(T) is the
equation can be written as welding time based on temperature and t0 represents
the contact duration.
m0 ða0  aÞ For thermoset resin matrix, a certain degree of initial
Pa ðb0 þ w0 Þ ¼ Ef
a cure will be generated during the storage process. Since
128m l  a0 m0  da the molecular chains of the cured resin matrix part
þ ðb0 þ w0 Þ b0 þ w0 
d 4 a dt cannot diffuse across the interface, the degree of auto-
ð26Þ hesion can be written by

Z 1 !
And integrating yields t0
dt 4
Dh ¼ min , 1  ð 1  0 Þ ð29Þ
Z 0 tw ðTÞ
d4 tc Pa  Ef mað0bð0aþw
0 aÞ
0Þ
dt
128l 0 m
In winding processes, the wound tape will always
¼ ðb0 þ w0 Þða0  aÞ þ a0 m0 ðIna  Ina0 Þ ð27Þ intimate contact with the laminated layer because of
the tension. The contact duration is much greater
Based on equations (21), (25) and (27), the degree of than the welding time (t0  tw(T)). Thus, the degree
intimate contact can be obtained in this case. of autohesion can be approximated as

Bonding submodel
Once two adjacent interfaces come into intimate contact,
a bonding process between the interfaces starts. And this
bonding process is caused mostly by autohesion.18 The
molecular chains of the polymer matrix diffuse across
the contacted tape interface while temperature rising
above the melting point. At the interface, the polymer
chains leave the initial conformation at one surface and
cross the interface to interpenetrate into the other side.
Entanglements of the chains across the interface are cre-
ated.23 The degree of autohesion can be expressed by24
Z !
t0
dt 4
1
Dau ¼ min ,1
0 tw ðTÞ
Dh  1  0 ð30Þ
After the processes of intimate contact and autohe-
sion, the interlaminar bond degree of the winding prod-
uct can be written as25
Db ¼ Dic  Dh ð31Þ
To study the influence mechanism of process param-
eters on bonding quality for winding product, the
simulation should be deployed based on above theor-
etical model. The interlaminar bond degree Db can be
obtained by different parameters settings. Furthermore,
the tape winding experiments and ILSS tests must be
ð28Þ conducted to validate the predictive capability of model
and the accuracy of simulation results.
586
Experimental procedure
The prepreg tape used in the experiment is glass fiber/
phenolic resin thermoset composite product by Beijing
Composite Materials Co., Ltd. The size of the tape is
80 mm in width and 0.25 mm in average thickness. The
fiber volume fraction is (57  2)%. Winding device is
NC tape winding machine. Curing equipment is auto-
clave product by TEDA Industrial Equipment Co.,
Ltd. The ILSS is tested by electronic universal testing
machine (model CSS-88010). Experiments are con-
ducted in the environment with temperature of
(20  2) C and humidity of (25  2)%.
Firstly, the flag stacked winding is carried out for
different process parameters settings. And then, the
composite tape winding ring specimens should be
cured and demold. The mandrel used in winding pro-
cess is cylindrical steel column with external diameter of
150 mm, and the external diameter of winding ring spe-
cimens is 160 mm. In the curing process, the heat-up
rate and pressure are 3 C/min and 0.15 MPa, and the
curing temperature should be kept for 150 min once the
temperature reached 178 C.
After that, based on the GB/T 1458-2008 standards,
the test method for mechanical properties of ring of
filament-winding reinforced plastics is used to test the
ILSS.26 As shown in Figure 9, the cured ring specimens
should be mechanical cut along the hoop direction to
obtain the NOL (Naval Ordnance Laboratory) ring.
The dimension of NOL ring used in this test is the
inner diameter with 150  0.2 mm, width with
6  0.2 mm and thickness with 3  0.1 mm. Then,
three curved test specimens should be cut out from
each NOL ring. Figure 9 shows the experiment of
tape winding and test specimens obtained process.
As shown in Figure 10, the test specimens are
mounted in the special fixture, and the three-point
Figure 9. The experiment of tape winding process and test
specimens acquisition.
NOL: Naval Ordnance Laboratory.
Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 36(8)
bending test is produced to measure the ILSS of tape
winding specimens. In order to eliminate the negative
impact of the friction on test results, the combination of
sliding support and antifriction bearing is designed for
free elongation of samples. Hence, the testing fixture
must be manufactured specifically for the three-point
bending test.
Finally, the compressive load is applied on the test
specimen at a speed of 1.0 mm/min until the specimen
failed, and the maximum load data carried by the spe-
cimen are recorded during the test. The ILSS can be
calculated by equation (32)
3Pb
s ¼ ð32Þ
4bh
where s is the ILSS, Pb is the maximum load, b is the
width of test sample and h is the thickness.
Influence mechanism of process
parameters
The comparison between simulation results and ILSS
testing data should be conducted to validate the accur-
acy of process model. According to the simulation
results, the influence mechanism of major process par-
ameters (e.g. heating temperature, consolidation force
and winding velocity) on interlaminar bond strength of
winding product will be analyzed. Before the simulation
process, some assumption must be proposed (1) The
micro-geometry texture of irregular surface is approxi-
mated by a series of rectangles, and the resin is uni-
formly covered the surface of the tape. (2) Since the
length and width of the tape is far greater than the
thickness, the consolidation force can be regarded as
average distribution on the tape surface. The model
inputs used in this simulation are given in Table 1.
Figure 10. Three-point bending test.
Yu et al. 587

Table 1. Parameters used in simulation. Figure 12 shows the theoretical bond degree and
practical ILSS curves of laminate at different winding
Parameters Detail Parameters Detail
velocity with two different settings of temperature and
r0 60 mm a0 0.075 mm consolidation force. The variation of velocity is set
rd 60.25 mm b0 0.47 mm from 0 to 0.6 m/s. The upper and lower limits of error
T0 25 C c0 0.04 mm bars in the experimental data are represent the max-
 0.08 W/(mK) w0 0.2 mm imum and minimum ILSS of the three test specimens
 1.57 g/cm3 m0 0.39 mm
which cut out from one NOL ring.
As shown in Figure 12(a), the bond strength of wind-
c 972 J/(kgK) d 0.033 mm
ing products gradually reduces with increasing velocity.
h 20 W/(m2K) l 0.125 mm
This kind of influence law indicated that the increasing
0 5.0% lc 6 mm winding velocity will shorten the heating and pressing
Ef  m 5.8 108 N/m2 time. Hence, low winding speed help to improve the
interlaminar bond strength of winding product.
However, at the conditions of high temperature and
pressure as shown in Figure 12(b), the situation will
be different. In spite of the good fluidity of resin in
tape surface at the slow winding speeds, the bond
strength is not satisfactory due to that too long time
pressure causes the molten resin will be pushed out of
the contact interface. As the velocity increasing, the
bond strength has improved significantly. It is worth
noting that the simulation results Db has a dramatic
change on the velocity of 0.1 m/s. By contrast, the
actual tested ILSS is a gradual rising process. This dif-
ference occurs because the micro-geometry texture of
the tape surface is approximated as a series of rectangu-
lar elements. However, the practical texture is arc elem-
ents as shown in Figure 5. With the velocity continues
to increase, the heating time and pressing time are fur-
ther shortened to cause the deterioration of the bond
Figure 11. Curve chart of tape surface temperature at differ- strength.
ent heating temperature.
Effect of heating temperature
Effect of winding velocity
According to the previous studies, the quality of com-
In the tape winding process, the winding velocity is not posite product is affected significantly by heating tem-
only related to the production efficiency but also affects perature during the molding process.27,28 In the
the quality of winding product. The velocity determines winding process, heat is transferred from hot roller to
the heating time of incoming tape through the hot prepreg tape by heat conduction. The viscosity of resin
roller. Figure 11 shows the resin temperature curves matrix is decreased due to heating, while the degree of
at the r of tape surface when tape comes into the intimate contact can be improved by appropriate vis-
molten region in the case of different heating tempera- cosity. Figure 13 shows the effect of heating tempera-
ture of hot roller. From Figure 11, the tape surface ture on bond strength in the case of different
temperature is decreasing with the increased winding consolidation force and velocity. Good agreement is
velocity. When the velocity reaches 0.6 m/s, it is difficult obtained between model predictions and experimental
to exceed 70 C even if the initial heating temperature of results. As shown in Figure 13(a), at the setting of
hot roll is 150 C. The resin matrix cannot reach the 100 C heating temperature and 0.3 m/s winding vel-
molten state below 70 C which depraved the interlami- ocity, the bond strength increases with the increasing
nar bond strength of laminates. On the other hand, the temperature. This phenomenon indicated that the
velocity affects the pressing time when tape come into favorable intimate contact and adequate penetration
the molten region. When the molten state resin of of molecular chains cannot be reached due to high vis-
incoming tape is contacts with the laminated layer, a cosity of resin. However, with respect to high consoli-
certain time of pressure must be applied to increase the dation force and low velocity as shown in Figure 13(b),
degree of intimate contact. if the temperature is too high, the resin matrix on the
588 Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 36(8)

Figure 12. (a) Effect of winding velocity on bond strength with different consolidation force and temperature and (b) effect of
winding velocity on bond strength with different consolidation force and temperature.
ILSS: interlaminar shear strength.

Figure 13. (a) Effect of heating temperature on bond strength with different consolidation force and velocity and (b) effect of heating
temperature on bond strength with different consolidation force and velocity.
ILSS: interlaminar shear strength.

interface will be supplanted to cause the decrease of the
bond strength.
Effect of consolidation force
To improve the degree of intimate contact between tape
and laminate and expel the bubble in the interface, con-
solidation force must be applied in winding process.
Figure 14(a) shows the effect of pressure on bond
strength with the temperature of 100 C and velocity
of 0.3 m/s. Once again a good agreement is obtained
between model predictions and experimental results.
It can be seen from the simulated results that the
bond strength improved with consolidation force
increasing due to increased intimate contact degree,
and the experimental data indicate the same trend.
However, since the high winding velocity and
insufficient temperature, the theoretical best quality
cannot be obtained even at high pressure.
Figure 14(b) shows the effect of consolidation force
on bond strength with the temperature of 125 C and
velocity of 0.1 m/s. The results confirm that high bond
strength can be obtained at lower pressure due to the
increased resin temperature. However, since the fiber in
the tape and laminate contact with each other on the
interface by the increased pressure, the degradation of
bond quality takes place at higher pressure value.
Coupling mechanism and process
optimization
According to the investigation of the effect of each pro-
cess parameter on bond strength, one can see that the
process parameters set which make the bond strength
Yu et al. 589

Figure 14. (a) Effect of consolidation force on bond strength with different temperature and velocity and (b) effect of consolidation
force on bond strength with different temperature and velocity.
ILSS: interlaminar shear strength.

Figure 15. (a) Effect of process parameters coupling on bond degree, (b) effect of process parameters coupling on bond degree and
(c) effect of process parameters coupling on bond degree.

reach the theoretical optimum value are not unique.
And the influence mechanism of each process param-
eter on bond strength is affected by other parameters
value. This phenomenon indicates that there is a cou-
pling mechanism between those process parameters.
The process parameters such as heating temperature,
consolidation force and winding velocity are coupled
with each other to determine the bond strength of wind-
ing product. (1) The coupling effect between winding
velocity and heating temperature is shown in
590
Figure 15(a). The tape temperature is determined by
both of the roller temperature and the heating time
which controlled by winding velocity. Therefore, the
tape temperature under the condition of high roller
temperature and high velocity might be the same with
the combination of low roller temperature and low vel-
ocity, and the bond degree is also the same in the two
different process settings. (2) Figure 15(b) shows the
coupling effect between consolidation force and heating
temperature. Since the high temperature will decrease
the viscosity of resin matrix, a good bond degree
between layers can be achieved by a smaller pressure
in the case of high temperature. However, with regard
to the combination of high temperature and high con-
solidation force, the deterioration of bond quality will
appear. (3) As shown in Figure15(c), the winding vel-
ocity also couples with consolidation force which
attributed to the fact that the application time of the
pressure is decided by the velocity as the pressing length
is a certain value.
Based on the validation of the accuracy of the predic-
tion model, the 3D process window of the winding prod-
uct bond degree can be obtained by simulation to optimize
the process parameters. As shown in Figure 16, the X-, Y-
Figure 16. Three-dimension process window of the tape
winding process parameters.
Table 2. Reliability test of 3D process window.
Temperature
Sample no. Region ( C)
1 Inside of window 97
2 Inside of window 134
3 Outside of window 108
4 Outside of window 87
Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites 36(8)
and Z-axis represents heating temperature,
consolidation force and winding velocity, respectively.
The 3D region which enveloped by blue surface is the
3D process window. Any process parameters settings
within this window can meet the theoretical best bond
degree.
In the practical production process, the selection of
process parameters not only need to consider the qual-
ity of winding products, but the production efficiency
and energy consumption also should be taken into
account. Therefore, suitable process parameters setting
can be selected using this 3D process window to control
the ILSS of winding products. For example, if the pro-
duction efficiency is considered as primary goal, high
temperature and pressure should be selected. However,
if the propose is to reduce the energy consumption, low
velocity and high pressure should be adopted.
In order to validate the reliability of 3D process
window, two groups of process parameter settings are
selected randomly from inside and outside of the pro-
cess window, respectively. The winding experiments
should be performed, and the ILSS of the winding
products is measured. The values of selected four
group process parameters and the corresponding
model prediction and experimental results are shown
in Table 2. It is easy to find that the ILSS and the
bond degree of the winding specimens which product
using the process parameter settings inside the process
window is obviously better than that outside of the
window. The validation results indicate that the 3D
process window of the process parameters for tape
winding is reliable.
Also, in practical product process, the basic param-
eters of composite prepreg tape (materials, dimensions
and weaving method) are different. Hence, for different
prepreg tape, the parameters of winding process should
be adjusted to ensure product with high quality. Since a
good consistency of simulation results and experimen-
tal date is found, the simulation of winding process for
different tapes can be conducted using theoretical
model presented in this paper. Based on the process
simulation, favorable bond quality can be obtained by
the 3D process window.
Pressure Velocity Predict Experimental
(N) (m/s) value (%) value (MPa)
1342 0.12 95 67.6
789 0.21 95 65.8
395 0.24 85 57.5
1421 0.27 79 53.3
Yu et al.
Conclusion
Based on the theoretical analysis and experimental
research of prepreg tape winding products manufactur-
ing process, the study results can be concluded as:
1. The interlaminar bond strength of winding product
is determined by the key winding process parameters
including heating temperature, consolidation force
and winding velocity.
2. The optimal value of bond degree is affected by the
initial cure degree (0) of prepreg tape directly. And
the initial cure degree is dependent on the time, tem-
perature and humidity of storage. Therefore, the
attention to storage process of prepreg tape should
be paid to reduce the initial cure degree.
3. The influence mechanism of all major process par-
ameters on bond strength is investigated based on
the simulation results and experimental data, and
the results show that a reasonable combination of
process parameters can improve the bond strength
of winding products. Moreover, an excellent predict-
ive capability of the winding process model in this
study is validated.
4. In the winding process, the coupling mechanism
between process parameters is also studied. The pro-
cess parameters, such as heating temperature, con-
solidation force and winding velocity, are coupled
with each other to determine the bond strength of
winding product.
5. According to the validation experiment, the 3D pro-
cess window of bond degree which proposed in this
paper is validated can be used to optimize the man-
ufacturing process parameters and control the bond
quality of winding products effectively.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This paper is financially supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Number:
51375394).
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