Thermal skin effect in laser-assisted tape placement of thermoplastic composites

The thesis presents time-dependent thermal models for laser-assisted thermoplastic tape placement and obtains the melt pool depth, dwell time and length, interface cooling rate and through-thickness elastic modulus at various process speeds. Experiments show the effect of temperature gradients at 1 m/s process speed. A novel optimization strategy adjusts the melt dwell length to the available pressuring length of consolidation rollers. Optimization potentials for laser technologies were identified.