Arnaud Poitou

An Improvement in Thermal Modelling of Automated Tape Placement Process

The thermoplastic tape placement process offers the possibility of manufacturing large laminated composite parts with all kinds of geometries (double curved i.e.). This process is based on the fusion bonding of a thermoplastic tape on a substrate. It has received a growing interest during last years because of its non autoclave abilities.In order to control and optimize the quality of the manufactured part, we need to predict the temperature field throughout the processing of the laminate. In this work, we focus on a thermal modeling of this process which takes in account the imperfect bonding existing between the different layers of the substrate by introducing thermal contact resistance in the model. This study is leaning on experimental results which inform us that the value of the thermal resistance evolves with temperature and pressure applied on the material.

Metallic energy-absorbing inserts for Formula One tyre barriers

Abstract Most Formula One circuits use tyre barriers for crash protection. Generally, they are composed of bolted tyres, fitted by a conveyor belt to the face of the barriers. The barriers are placed against a rigid wall or a metallic safety barrier. When the protection area is too small, the rigidity of the tyre barrier is improved by polyethylene tubular inserts inside the tyres. The static and dynamic tests realized at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes present the energy boundary condition for the thermoplastic insert used at present. Thus, contrary to what is usually thought, the following studies show that a metallic insert solution is better from an energy dissipation point of view.