Multi-scale effects in the consolidation of thermoplastic laminates

Consolidation experiments were performed on thermoplastic composite laminates produced by film- stacking. The results suggest that the consolidation takes place in different stages: plastic deformation of the thermoplastic film, meso-impregnation and finally micro-impregnation. However, the micro-impregnation is found to govern the total impregnation time. The applied macro-scale boundary conditions resulted in severe in-plane resin flow, causing variations in laminate thickness. A multi-scale model approach is proposed to combine these macro-scale boundary conditions with micro-scale impregnation kinetics.