Research Collection

Journal Article

Pultrusion of large thermoplastic composite profiles up to Ø 40

mm from glass-fibre/PET commingled yarns

Author(s):
Volk, Maximilian; Wong, Joanna; Arreguin, Shelly; Ermanni, Paolo

Publication Date:
2021-12-15

Permanent Link:
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000513801

Originally published in:

Composites Part B: Engineering 227, http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2021.109339

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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 Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composites Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/composites

Pultrusion of large thermoplastic composite profiles up to Ø 40 mm from

glass-fibre/PET commingled yarns
Maximilian Volk a ,∗, Joanna Wong b , Shelly Arreguin a , Paolo Ermanni a
a
Laboratory of Composite Materials and Adaptive Structures, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, Leonhardstrasse
21, CH 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
b
Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, Canada

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Pultrusion is a rapid and cost-effective manufacturing technology for continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic
Pultrusion composite profiles. As the cross-sections of pultruded profiles grow to meet increasing performance require-
Thermoplastic resin ments, manufacturing challenges concerning heat transfer are encountered. In this study, a two-dimensional
Glass fibres
finite element model was used to simulate the heat transfer and fluid flow physics of the pultrusion process
Thermal analysis
for increasing diameters from Ø 5–Ø 40 mm. To facilitate the experimental validation, a novel batch-wise
pultrusion concept is introduced in which the impregnation process is observed in-situ using a transparent die.
The pultrusion studies, conducted on glass-fibre/amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (GF/PET) commingled
yarns, show that – with proper design – pultrusion is able to deliver consistent, high quality (void content <
2%) profiles up to at least Ø 40 mm.

1. Introduction In state-of-the-art thermoset composite pultrusion, the exothermic

Large cross-section composite profiles are critical lightweight load-
bearing structures found in wind turbine blade root reinforcements,
high voltage insulator cores, and beams for construction applications
[1]. Historically, these large profiles have been pultruded from rein-
forcement fibres and low viscosity thermosetting polymers [2]. How-
ever, growing health and safety concerns about the anhydride harden-
ers used for this application have led to legislative pressure in Europe
to eliminate these chemicals from manufacturing processes [3]. At the
same time, increasing environmental awareness has brought criticism
of the limited end-of-life options for thermoset composites. Thermoplas-
tic composites do not require chemical curing and can be processed
without volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Additionally, they can be
reshaped, welded and recycled and possess a virtually infinite shelf
life [4]. Despite these clear advantages, manufacturing processes for
thermoplastic composites remain underdeveloped. Notably, pultrusion
of thermoplastic composite profiles has been not been investigated for
profiles exceeding 4.5 mm in thickness [5] or Ø 8 mm diameter [6],
compared to the Ø 130 mm diameters [7] commercially available in
thermoset composite rods. A selection of the recent literature on the
profile dimensions and intermediate materials used for thermoplastic
composite pultrusion is presented in Table 1.
curing reaction of the monomer is the primary cause restricting the
profile cross-section and manufacturing speed [8]. If not carefully
controlled, the temperature gradients during curing result in stresses
that can lead to the formation of cracks on the surface of the pro-
file [9], delamination, warpage [10], or thermal degradation [11].
Thermoplastic composite processing does not require an exothermic
curing reaction. Therefore, this study wants to investigate whether
manufacturing strategies for these materials may be able to circumvent
the limitations imposed by thermosetting materials by applying the
pultrusion process to large cross-section thermoplastic composites.
Even though thermoplastic polymers only undergo a physical phase
change during solidification, heat extraction may still be a challenge as
heat can only be removed through the surface of the profile. Moreover,
the processing temperatures of thermoplastics are significantly higher
with 240–280 ◦ C used for the PET polymer in this study compared
to 175 ◦ C for GF-epoxy profiles [21]. For small thermoplastic profiles,
characterized by large surface to volume ratios, heat extraction can be
performed quickly, enabling pultrusion speeds up to 10 m/min [19].
However, heat extraction and solidification can become a bottleneck
in the manufacturing process for large thermoplastic profiles with low
surface to volume ratios due to the low thermal conductivity of polymer
materials.

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mvolk@ethz.ch (M. Volk).
URL: http://structures.ethz.ch (M. Volk).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2021.109339
Received 25 July 2021; Received in revised form 13 September 2021; Accepted 18 September 2021
Available online 24 September 2021
1359-8368/© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
M. Volk et al.
Table 1
Overview about pultruded thermoplastic profile cross-sections.
Author Dimensions
Asensio (2020) [12] 20 × 2 mm
Lapointe (2019) [13] Ø 4.8 mm
Tomic (2018) [6] Ø 8 mm
Novo (2016) [14] 20 × 2 mm
Nunes (2013) [15] 24 × 4 U-shaped
Babeau (2015) [16] 50 × 4 mm
Linganiso (2014) [17] 30 × 3 mm
Kamble (2008) [5] 22.75 × 4.5 mm
Wiedmer (2006) [18] Ø 4.9 mm, 10 × 3.5 mm
Miller (1998) [19] Ø 2 mm, 20 × 2 mm
Jürss (1995) [20] 3 × 1.5 mm
Thermoplastic matrix systems also present challenges for impreg-
nation and consolidation due to their high viscosity at processing
temperature. Typical melt viscosities of thermoplastics are in the order
of 500–5000 Pa s compared to the 0.03–1 Pa s typical of uncured
thermosets [22]. To overcome the processing issues associated with the
high melt viscosities of thermoplastics, different materials have been
developed for pultrusion processes. Reactive thermoplastics facilitate
impregnation due to their low viscosities. However, similarly to their
thermosetting counterparts, reactive thermoplastics also exhibit disad-
vantages such as exothermic curing reactions, furthermore they are
only available for a limited range of materials i.e. PA12 [23], PA6
or PMMA [24] and require precisely controlled processing conditions
such as e.g. nitrogen atmosphere. Direct melt impregnation of the
fibres can be achieved using specially formulated low-viscosity ther-
moplastics. However, good results have only been achieved for profiles
with short impregnation lengths and large width to height ratios [25].
Alternatively, intermediate material such as tapes [26], towpregs [27]
or commingled yarns [28] can be used to reduce impregnation lengths.
While tapes provide excellent impregnation results and towpregs allow
a homogeneous polymer distribution among the fibres, their high cost
is a limiting factor. Commingled yarns were selected for this study as
they are available in a wide selection of polymers and at a reasonable
cost while still showing a sufficiently good impregnation behaviour.
This study investigates the feasibility of protruding high quality
large cross-section solid thermoplastic rods with diameters larger than
Ø 8 mm with void contents below 2% from commingled yarns. The
research focus lies on the thermal management of the pultrusion pro-
cess as it changes with increasing profile diameter. A multiphysics
finite element model (FEM) was implemented in Comsol 5.4 to simulate
the heat transfer and fluid flow physics during the pultrusion process
for a Ø 10 mm profile. The model was validated experimentally and
then used to design pultrusion dies for Ø 5 mm, Ø 20 mm, and
Ø 40 mm profiles. Pultrusion experiments were conducted using a
novel batch pultrusion system, to minimize the cost of setting up a
continuous pultrusion line, while still enabling the study of steady-
state processing conditions. A transparent die was used to evaluate
this concept in terms of resin backflow, void evacuation, and fibre
alignment. The numerical model guided the design of the pultrusion
dies and processing parameters and enabled the manufacture of high
quality profiles with void contents < 2% for diameters up to Ø 40 mm,
the largest thermoplastic composite rods to be pultruded to date. These
results indicate that large cross-section thermoplastic profiles may be
manufactured by pultrusion. However, the speed advantage often asso-
ciated with thermoplastic composite processing is significantly reduced
with increasing diameters due to the limited cooling capabilities.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Feedstock
Compofil-PET-70-R-2690N from Jushi (China), a commingled yarn
material based on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and E-glass with
2
Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
Material
PET recycled/GF towpreg
PEEK/CF commingled
PET/GF commingled
PP/GF towpreg
PP/GF towpreg
Low viscosity PA6/GF melt impregnation
PLA/flax commingled
PP/GF commingled
PA12/GF commingled
PP/GF commingled
PP/GF commingled
Table 2
Ø 10 mm die geometry parameters, all measurements in mm.
Øentrance Øexit ltaper lstraight lcooling lgap
Ø 25 Ø 10 114 20 90 5
a fibre volume content of 55%, was used in this study. PET was
selected for its favourable shrinkage and good impregnation behaviour,
as well as its competitive price point. A study comparing the results of
pultrusion on commingled yarns containing other thermoplastic matrix
systems was previously published [29]. Before use, the commingled
yarns were dried at 40 ◦ C for 6 h. The dried yarns were heat-set under
tension inside the preheating oven at 150 ◦ C for 15 min to allow the
highly oriented polymer chains to relax after the fibre spinning process
and to prevent them from contracting during preheating.
2.2. Material characterization
2.2.1. Thermal analysis
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) using a Perkin Elmer Pyris 1
TGA was run from 20 ◦ C to 800 ◦ C at heating rates of 10 ◦ C/min in
air atmosphere to determine the thermal degradation behaviour of the
polymer. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) on a Mettler Toledo
DSC 1 running from 20 ◦ C to 300 ◦ C at heating rates of 10 ◦ C/min in
nitrogen atmosphere was used to determine glass transition tempera-
tures. The DSC measurements showed a fully amorphous polymer with
a glass transition temperature of 80 ◦ C. The DSC and TGA curves are
provided in the Appendix A. The thermal conductivity of the compos-
ite materials at room temperature was measured in longitudinal and
transverse direction to the fibres using a custom built device according
to Ref. [30], with the values provided in Table 3 . The emissivity of
the material of 0.94 for a wavelength ranging from 8 μ m to 14 μ
m has been determined by fitting the temperature measurement of a
composite rod section using a calibrated thermocouple thermometer to
the measurements of a pyrometer.
2.2.2. Rheology
Samples of neat polymer melt were extracted from the commingled
yarn by hot pressing under vacuum in a Fontijne TP 400 press at
270 ◦ C. The extracted polymer was used to characterize its rheological
behaviour using an Anton Paar MCR302 plate rheometer operating
in frequency sweep at 270 ◦ C from 100 to 1 rad/s and temperature
ramp from 270 ◦ C to 150 ◦ C. The shear viscosity was determined from
the oscillatory measurements through the Cox–Merz rule [31]. The
viscosity curves are found in the Appendix A.
2.2.3. Microscopy & void content measurement
Commingled yarns and pultruded rods were embedded in epoxy
resin and cross-sectional surfaces were obtained by polishing on a
Struers Abramin machine using, at the finest, a 3 μ m diamond suspen-
sion. Imaging was done with a Keyence VHX 6000 digital microscope
with a defined brightness threshold under coaxial light to distinguish
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the pultrusion die assembly.
Table 3
Material properties of E-glass, PET and of the composite with 55% fibre volume fraction.
Material property
Density (20–300 ◦ C) [g/cm3 ]
Heat capacity (20–300 ◦ C) [J/(gK)]
Viscosity [Pa s] 100–270 ◦ C
Glass transition temperature Tg [◦ C]
Thermal conductivity literature (20 ◦ C) [W/(mK)]
◦
Thermal conductivity experimental (20 C) [W/(mK)]
Emissivity
voids from the surrounding material. Void content was averaged over
5 different measurements evenly spaced out over the length of the
pultruded rod, without considering the first and last sections of the rod.
2.3. Numerical simulation
2.3.1. Pultrusion die geometry
The geometry of the heating die consists of a tapered and straight
section, while the cross-section of the cooling die’s cavity remains
constant over its whole length. A schematic of the die geometry is
represented in Fig. 1. In the tapered region of the die, the same ratio
between diameter change to length change of 1:10 was used for all
rod diameters to assure comparability, which corresponds to a taper
angle of 5.71◦ . This ratio was chosen due to its favourable compromise
between impregnation performance, relatively short length, and ease of
manufacture using tapered reamers. The length of the straight section
of the heating and cooling dies was increased linearly with the outlet
diameter, effectively increasing the length by a factor of two when
doubling the diameter. This allows the total surface areas available
for heating and cooling to scale linearly with the pultrudate volume
to ensure sufficient heating and cooling power as the rod diameter
increases. The geometrical parameters of the initial Ø 10 mm pultrusion
die tested are summarized in Table 2.
2.3.2. Model formulation
A 2D axis-symmetric coupled heat transfer-fluid flow finite element
model was developed in Comsol 5.4 to simulate the temperature distri-
bution inside a Ø 10 mm pultrusion die for different pultrusion speeds
Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
glass fibre PET composite
2.55–2.53 [32] 1.33–1.14 [33] 2.01–1.92
0.8-1.1 [34] 1.14–2.1 [35] 1.03–1.34
– 8228–44 –
– 80 ◦ C –
0.72 (longitudinal)
1.05 [32] 0.29 [36]
0.55 (transverse)
0.7 (longitudinal)
– –
0.6 (transverse)
– – 0.94
and processing temperatures. First, a 3D model of the die assembly
was used to determine the placement of the heating cartridges and the
distribution of cooling channels to achieve a homogeneous temperature
distribution of the die surfaces in contact with the commingled yarns.
This model was then simplified into a 2D axis-symmetric model with
predefined temperature boundary conditions at the die/pultrudate in-
terfaces. The fluid flow model follows a similar approach developed for
tapes by Åström, who treated the material as a fibre filled fluid inside
the tapered section where backflow can occur, and as a solid in the con-
stant cross-sections of the die where plug flow prevails [37]. To avoid
dividing the pultrudate into different physical phases, i.e. melt and
solid, the approach from Haffner [38] of implementing phase change
through a temperature-dependent viscosity is used. The polymer flow
is therefore modelled through the superposition of two submodels. One
submodel considers the backflow of the polymer through a porous
media of fibres, while the second submodel accounts for the motion of
the pultrudate through the die, assuming Stokes flow. The Brinkman
equation is used as the governing equation of flow through porous
media, due to the large variation of fibre volume content through-
out the heating die. The transversely isotropic permeability tensor is
determined using Gebart’s model [39].
A more detailed modelling approach for describing the pultru-
sion of commingled yarns has been developed by Kim et al. [40]. In
contrast to Åström’s model, Kim’s model considers a dual scale flow
behaviour in which polymer matrix first flows along the dry glass
fibres agglomerations before impregnating them. Kim’s approach was
not applied here because micrographs indicated that the dual-scale flow
effects were negligible after the first 25% of the die, as the glass fibre
agglomerations are completely impregnated with polymer.
3
M. Volk et al. Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339

Table 4
Preheating temperature for a heating die temperature of 260 ◦ C.
Diameter/speed Ø 5 mm Ø 10 mm Ø 20 mm Ø 40 mm
◦ ◦ ◦
25 mm/min 160 C 180 C 200 C 240 ◦ C
◦ ◦ ◦
50 mm/min 180 C 240 C 245 C 250 ◦ C
75 mm/min 220 ◦C 245 ◦C 248 ◦C –
100 mm/min 230 ◦C 250 ◦C 253 ◦C –
◦ ◦ ◦
150 mm/min 240 C 253 C 255 C –

The fluid flow model is directly coupled to the heat transfer model,
which is described through the 2D steady-state heat transfer equa-
tion [10]. Inside the heating die, only conduction is considered while
additional free convection and radiation terms are added once the
material exits the die. The convection heat transfer coefficient is deter-
mined for round cylinders with the corresponding Nusselt and Prandtl
Fig. 2. Micrograph of unconsolidated commingled yarn, with polymer fibres
values for ambient air at 20 ◦ C according to Kind [41], while the emis-
highlighted in violet and surrounded by a dashed line.
sivity value is determined experimentally as described in Section 2.2.
The resulting non-linear multiphysics problem is solved through a seg-
regated solver approach, where the problem is subdivided into several
2.3.7. Heat capacity
steps, solved separately, and joined at the end to compose the final
The temperature dependent heat capacity of the composite is com-
solution. A mesh convergence study was conducted to optimize the
puted based on literature values of amorphous PET [35] and E-glass
mesh refinement and element type for all sub-models while maintaining
fibre [34] using the rule of mixture. A linear regression function is fitted
the robustness of the model.
to the results:

2.3.3. Boundary conditions 𝑐𝑝 (𝑇 ) = 1.11−3 𝑇 + 1.010, [◦ C, J∕(g K)] (3)

In contrast to the majority of existing modelling approaches, a slip
boundary condition is applied over the whole die length as the move-
ment of the pultrudate is determined by the fibres. This assumption
is supported by the fact that no visible polymer-rich region on the
surface of the pultrudate was observed. The reason for this is likely
the comparably high fibre volume fractions used, which were between
55% and 65%. The inlet boundary condition is set to atmospheric
pressure to account for potential backflow, while the outlet boundary
condition is set to the pultrusion speed. A preheating temperature value
according to Table 4 has been applied to the material entering the
heating die from the preheating oven. A constant temperature of 260 ◦ C
has been applied to the heating die surface and 30 ◦ C was applied
to the cooling die surfaces for all simulations and experiments. No
temperature conditions were applied to the cooling die liner.
2.3.4. Material models
Table 3 summarizes the numerical values of the material properties
used for the FEM-simulation for a fibre volume content of 55%. All tem-
perature dependent property curves are provided in the Appendix A.
2.3.5. Density
The temperature dependent density of the glass fibre and PET
material are derived from literature values [32,42]. The temperature
dependent density 𝜌(𝑇 ) of the composite is then computed for the
variable fibre volume fractions using the rule of mixture to which the
following regression function is then fitted:
𝜌(𝑇 ) = −3.41 × 10−4 𝑇 + 2.02 [◦ C, g∕cm3 ]
2.3.6. Degradation
To predict the maximum exposure time the polymer could re-
main at a defined temperature with minimal degradation, a 4th order
polynomial regression function has been fitted to the TGA degrada-
tion measurements, assuming an acceptable weight loss of 0.5%. The
maximum exposure time 𝑡(𝑇 ) as a function of temperature is given as:
𝑡(𝑇 ) = 8.03 × 103 − 104.50 𝑇 + 0.51 𝑇 2 − 1.08 × 10−3 𝑇 3
+ 8.44 × 10−7 𝑇 4 [◦ C, min]
2.3.8. Thermal conductivity
Instead of assuming an isotropic conductivity as found in state
of the art thermoplastic pultrusion modelling, both longitudinal and
transverse thermal conductivity are considered in this work to increase
the accuracy of the temperature prediction for large diameters. The
longitudinal thermal conductivity is determined through the rule of
mixtures, while the transverse conductivity is computed using Chamis’
equations [43], based on literature values for the glass fibre [32] and
PET [36]. The experimental validation of the conductivity at room tem-
perature given in Table 3 showed good agreement with the computed
values with a 8% deviation for the transverse and 3% for the longi-
tudinal conductivity that lay within the measurement accuracy. The
conductivity is assumed to remain constant over the temperature range
as no reliable temperature dependent material data for the amorphous
PET grade was available.
2.3.9. Permeability
The permeability is assumed to be transversely isotropic to the
pulling direction. The longitudinal and transverse permeabilities were
computed using the Gebart model [39] with a hexagonal fibre arrange-
ment as suggested by Raper [44]. In Fig. 2 the glass fibres appear white
with an average glass fibre diameter of 12.6 μm while the thermoplastic
fibres are highlighted in blue, with an average fibre diameter of 18.6
μm. The computed permeability values over the length of the die
depend on the die radius and are provided in the Appendix A. The
resulting permeability values are consistent with those that have been
experimentally determined for glass fibre yarns in other pultrusion
processes [16,45].
(1)
2.3.10. Viscosity
The temperature-dependent viscosity of the PET is implemented
through a power regression function based on the rheometry measure-
ments described in Section 2.2.2. The resulting equation is given as:
𝜇(𝑇 ) = 1016 𝑇 −5.959 , [Pa s] (4)
No shear thinning effect is taken into account as its influence on
the viscosity of the polymer was found to be insignificant compared to
the influence of temperature [38] at the pultrusion speeds used in this
(2) study.

4
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 3. Pultrusion process for sample manufacturing.
2.4. Experimental
2.4.1. Batch pultrusion approach
The batch pultrusion approach allows the space- and cost-efficient
pultrusion of large cross-section profiles of limited lengths. Conven-
tional continuous pultrusion requires a bobbin creel and a yarn guid-
ance system for each yarn that is fed into the pultrusion die. For
the pultrusion of a Ø 40 mm rod, 850 bobbins would be required
assuming the heaviest available yarn weight of 2690 tex. Batch pul-
trusion circumvents the space requirements and associated equipment
and material cost by winding material from a single bobbin into one
thick loop to achieve the required throughput for the pultrusion die.
As illustrated in Fig. 3, the loop is cut on its trailing end after winding
and pulled through the die by a steel pulling wire attached to a load
cell and pulling mechanism consisting of a sled on linear rails that is
powered by an electric winch capable of up to 100 kN pulling force
and speeds up to 1000 mm/min. The pulling wire can be reused for the
next experiment after removing the pultruded rod. The pultrusion speed
and pulling forces are recorded at a 2 Hz frequency using a magnetic
position sensor with an accuracy of ±15 μm and S-type strain gauge
load cell with an accuracy of ±2 N, respectively. The length of the loop,
and therefore of the pultruded rod, is set to 1500 mm.
Generally, thermoset pultrusion is thought to take several metres
before steady-state pultrusion is reached. This is due to the high pultru-
sion speeds used in industry and the exothermic reaction of thermosets
which requires time to develop. In thermoplastic pultrusion, steady-
state conditions can be obtained once the temperature profile is static
and the matrix flow has stabilized. Pulling force and temperature
measurements were used to verify steady-state conditions. High heating
and cooling capacities were used so that the contact surfaces were
maintained at a constant temperature, not influenced by the transient
material. Furthermore, shear strength testing and void content analysis
over the length of the pultruded samples confirmed no measurable
influence of the position within the rod. This combined analysis showed
that the pultrusion speed was the most important parameter in deter-
mining the pulling length needed to achieve steady-state conditions. At
the highest speed studied here of 200 mm/min, steady-state conditions
were reached after a rod section with a length equivalent to the length
of the heating die was pultruded. To analyse only material made under
steady-state conditions, the first and last section of the rod with the
same length as the heating die were omitted from the analysis. Batch
pultrusion lengths up to 3000 mm were investigated throughout the
study. A length of 1500 mm was determined to be ideal to reach steady-
state conditions interesting for the study of continuous pultrusion while
providing sufficient material for characterization.
The heating and cooling dies were manufactured to the geometries
determined to be most effective by the numerical simulations. The
heating die is machined out of steel, while the cooling die consists
of an aluminium body with a steel liner. The steel liner protrudes
into the heating die and is made from a precision ground tube as
represented in green in Fig. 1. This continuous die approach prevents
the recurring problem of deconsolidation of the material upon exit from
the heating die, and the shearing and recompression upon entry into the
5
Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
cooling die [46]. This liner is easily replaced in case of damage. The
temperature gradient between the heating and cooling temperatures
was found to be sensitive to the thickness of the liner at the transition
as well as to the distance between the heating and cooling dies.
Prior to being drawn into the heating die, the commingled yarns
were preheated in a custom built convection oven. Historically, pre-
heating set-ups were conductive systems using metal tubes wrapped
with heater tape [47], or heated metal plates [48]. Later forced con-
vection systems using hot air blowing, such as the one used here,
were developed to increase the efficiency and homogeneity of the
preheating [26,27]. Other preheating set-ups that have been proposed
for pultrusion include infrared [49] and microwave radiation [17] or
hybrid systems in which infrared or microwaves are combined with
forced convection. To achieve the desired temperature distribution
inside the pre-heating oven, a custom forced convection preheating
concept was developed using a longitudinal airflow of adjustable speed.
The temperature of the preheater was set according to the desired pro-
cessing temperature, pultrusion speed, profile diameter, and the time
and temperature dependent degradation behaviour determined through
the TGA analysis. It was chosen to be as low as possible to minimize
degradation while also being high enough to enable a homogeneous
temperature distribution to be reached at the outlet of the heating die.
A maximum temperature difference of ±5 ◦ C between the centre of
the rod and the surface at the exit of the heating die was allowed. All
processing parameters were set according to the results of the numer-
ical simulations. Table 4 shows the preheating temperature required
for the pultrusion of different diameter rods with a die temperature
of 260 ◦ C at different pultrusion speeds. An intermediate conduction
heating element set to the preheating temperature was placed between
the preheating oven and the inlet of the heating die to prevent the
commingled yarns from cooling down through the transition.
All heating modules (preheater, intermediate heater, heating die)
were heated by electrical resistance and regulated by PID (proportional–
integral–derivative) controllers. The cooling die was water-cooled with
the temperature regulated through a PID-controlled heater and fan-
supported radiator. Temperatures were monitored by strategically placed
thermocouples as well as pyrometers for contactless temperature ac-
quisition. The temperature distribution and evolution predicted by the
model were validated by inserting a K-type thermocouple into the
commingled yarn bundle and recording the temperature during the
pultrusion process [50]. After the experiment, the exact position of
the thermocouple inside the rod was determined and compared to the
equivalent location in the simulation.
2.4.2. Transparent die
A major concern with the batch pultrusion approach when com-
pared with continuous pultrusion is the absence of fibre pretensing and
fibre guidance. Fibre pretensing and guidance ensure that the fibres are
straight and aligned along the pulling direction. Without these systems,
yarns may entangle or buckle resulting in poor mechanical properties
in the pultruded structure. To investigate whether the lack of preten-
sion and fibre guidance had detrimental effects on fibre alignment, a
transparent observation die was developed as shown in Fig. 4. The
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 4. Transparent heating die for optical in-situ observation of the pultrusion process.
transparent set-up consists of a heating die without cooling section
where half of it was replaced by a 15 mm thick glass plate that is
sealed with high-temperature silicone. The transparent die had a taper
angle of 18.43◦ , an exit diameter of Ø 10 mm, an entrance diameter
of Ø 30 mm, a taper length of 60 mm, and a straight section length
of 30 mm. Although the same heating strategy was employed for the
transparent die, the temperature profile deviated up to 3 ◦ C from a fully
axisymmetric profile of the full die due to the constant heat flux from
the heated glass plate into the pultruded material. The transparent die
enabled the phenomena of resin backflow and void evacuation to be
observed during pultrusion. Although both void evacuation and resin
backflow mechanisms are included in several pultrusion models [40,
51], to the author’s knowledge these behaviours have not been directly
experimentally observed until now.
Fig. 5. Temperature distribution during pultrusion of a Ø 10 mm profile based on a preheating temperature of 250 ◦ C, heating die temperature of 260 ◦ C, cooling die temperature
of 30 ◦ C, and pultrusion speeds of (a) 25 and (b) 100 mm/min.
Fig. 6. Temperature distribution of Ø 10 mm pultrudate simulated using preheating temperatures of (a) 250 ◦ C and (b) 230 ◦ C with a heating die temperature of 260 ◦ C, a
cooling die temperature of 30 ◦ C and a pulling speed of 100 mm/min.
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3. Results and discussion
3.1. Coupled thermal-fluid flow model
Representative temperature distributions predicted by the coupled
heat transfer and fluid flow FEM model are shown in Fig. 5. Specifically,
these are the simulation results for a Ø 10 mm profile pultruded with a
preheating temperature of 250 ◦ C, heating die temperature of 260 ◦ C,
and cooling die temperature of 30 ◦ C run at two different pultrusion
speeds of 25 and 100 mm/min. Because the material is thoroughly
preheated prior to entering the heating die, it exhibits a homogeneous
temperature distribution throughout its transit through the heating die.
Upon entering the cooling die, the surface of the pultrudate solidifies
first, leading to a bell curve-shaped phase transition profile that extends
in length with increasing pultrusion speed.
The importance of preheating is illustrated in Fig. 6 which show-
cases the effect of preheating on the temperature distributions for a
Ø 10 mm pultrudate simulated using different preheating temperatures
of 250 ◦ C and 230 ◦ C at a pultrusion speed of 100 mm/min. These
simulations show that a preheating temperature of 250 ◦ C leads to a
homogeneous temperature distribution within the allowed 5 ◦ C toler-
ance, while 230 ◦ C leads to inhomogeneous and incomplete heating
at this relatively high pultrusion speed. This is due to a combination
of the low thermal conductivity of the polymer material and the low
residence time inside the heating die at high speeds.
While preheating can be used to ensure homogeneous heat intro-
duction, heat extraction during the solidification of the pultrudate in
the cooling die is more critical as it only occurs through the surface
in contact with the cooling die. Fig. 7 shows the simulated tempera-
ture evolution as a function of position from the inlet of the heating
die for Ø 10 mm rods pultruded at a heating die temperature of
260 ◦ C, cooling die temperature of 30 ◦ C, and pulling speeds of 50,
100, and 200 mm/min. Temperatures are reported for the centre and
1 mm below the surface of the rod. Higher pulling speeds decrease
the residence time of the material in each die section leading to lower
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 7. Temperature evolution as a function of die position taken at the centre and
edge of a Ø 10 mm pultruded rod for speeds of 50, 100, and 200 mm/min.
temperatures in the heating die, higher temperatures in the cooling
die, and larger temperature gradients between the surface and the
centre of the pultrudate. At high speeds, the centre of the rod is not
given sufficient time inside the cooling die to come to equilibrium
with the surface temperature. The residual heat in the core causes the
outer surface of the rod to be reheated through conduction as can be
observed for pultrusion speeds of 100 and 200 mm/min, and potentially
lead to deconsolidation if surface temperatures are raised above the
solidification temperature of the thermoplastic matrix.
For any fixed pulling speed, heat extraction inside the cooling die
becomes more critical with increasing pultrudate diameter. Fig. 8(a)
depicts the temperature distributions for Ø 5 mm, Ø 10 mm, Ø 20 mm,
and Ø 40 mm rods inside the cooling die at the same heating and
cooling die temperatures as well as the same pulling speed. For ease
of comparison, the images have been scaled to the same size with the
Fig. 8. Temperature distributions inside the cooling dies for pultrudate diameters of Ø 5–Ø 40 mm (a). Pulling speeds were fixed at 100 mm/min, and preheating and heating
temperatures were set to 245 ◦ C and 260 ◦ C, respectively. Time required to cool the core of a thermoplastic composite rod from 260 ◦ C to 80 ◦ C assuming a cooling die temperature
of 30 ◦ C (b).
Fig. 9. Total matrix flow through pultrusion die (a), matrix backflow relative to the fibre bed at 50 mm/min and Ø 10 mm pultrusion diameter (b).
7
Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
scale bars indicating the actual dimensions. This comparison indicates
that the cooling efficiency of the process does not scale linearly with
increasing pultrudate diameter with high-temperature regions propa-
gating far into the cooling die for larger diameters. The main reason for
this behaviour is the ratio between the volume of the pultrudate and
the available cooling surface which decreases with larger diameters.
The volume of the pultrudate scales with radius squared, whereas the
available cooling surface scales only linearly with radius. Fig. 8(b)
provides a plot of the time required to cool a composite rod from a
core temperature of 260 ◦ C to 80 ◦ C using a cooling die temperature of
30 ◦ C. While the cooling time for a Ø 5 mm pultrudate is around 9 s, it
would take one hour for a Ø 100 mm rod to reach the same temperature
because the thermal conductivity of the composite material becomes
the limiting factor. Even though this issue can be mitigated to a certain
extent by increasing the length of the cooling die, this would be at the
expense of increasing friction and therefore pultrusion forces.
The results of the fluid-flow simulations for a Ø 10 mm rod pul-
truded at a speed of 50 mm/min are shown in Fig. 9. Due to the
axisymmetric nature of the flow, only half of the die is represented.
The flow field shown in Fig. 9 a represents the superimposed flow
generated by the motion of the fibre bed in pultrusion direction and
the matrix backflow in the opposite direction. At the entrance of the
tapered section, the speed of the total flow is relatively low and reverses
its direction after the dashed line towards the die walls. This can be
explained through the increased backflow at those locations, which is
caused by higher temperatures through the heat input which in turn
leads to a decrease of the matrix viscosity. This backflow is highlighted
in Fig. 9 b and represents the movement of the matrix relative to the
fibre bed. It decreases towards the end of the tapered section with
decreasing pressure gradient until no backflow is present in the straight
section and the total flow therefore equals the pultrusion speed.
3.2. Experimental validation of finite element models
To experimentally validate the finite element models, the custom-
built batch pultrusion setup shown in Fig. 10(a) was used. Examples of
the profiles obtained are shown in Fig. 10(b).
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 10. Photographs of Ø 20 mm pultrusion setup during pultrusion of Ø 20 mm rod (a), Ø 40 and Ø 20 mm profiles made from amorphous PET, semi-crystalline PET (b).
Fig. 11. Tapered section of pultrusion die throughout pultrusion experiment with 50 mm/min pulling speed.
The metal pulling wire from Fig. 3 can be seen in Fig. 11(a)
highlighted in red pulling in a bundle of commingled yarns through
the transparent heating die. The images (a), (b) and (c) in Fig. 11 show
the development of a resin backflow front, highlighted in blue. The
polymer volume displaced by the metal pulling wire creates the initial
backflow. The shear forces created by pulling the yarns through the
straight section of the die rapidly straighten any initially misaligned
fibres. Void extraction can be observed to occur towards the middle of
the tapered die, with bubbles being pushed towards the die inlet. For
speeds greater than 100 mm/min some of the bubbles were observed to
be trapped by the fibres, rapidly decreasing in size and likely collapsing
due to high matrix pressures at the transition between the tapered
and straight section of the heating die. The fibre straightening and
void evacuation mechanisms observed through the transparent die
suggest that the batch pultrusion process introduced here is not signif-
icantly disadvantaged compared to continuous pultrusion systems with
extensive tensioning and fibre guidance systems. A video where GF-
PP commingled yarns are pultruded is accessible through a hyperlink
https://youtu.be/qKukzqm0J-I.
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Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
Attempts were made to track the resin backflow visually using
differently sized iron oxide and graphite particles as well as Astrazon
BR200 colour dye to determine a flow distribution inside the die.
Unfortunately, the solid particles were quickly trapped by the fibres and
carried along as can be observed in Fig. 11(a), while the coloured dye
remained up to ten times longer in the tapered section than the glass
fibres as depicted in Fig. 11(e) and (f). While these observations did
not provide a measurable velocity field, it did confirm the presence of
resin backflow as found in the fluid flow simulation of Fig. 9. The yarn
bundles were observed to increase slightly in diameter upon entry into
the tapered section. As no pretension is applied to the yarns, matrix
can fill the volume between yarns through backflow and capillary
pressure and increase the bundles’ diameter, potentially improving
impregnation.
The simulated temperature distributions were experimentally vali-
dated for different temperature combinations, pultrusion speeds, and
diameters using the batch pultrusion system. The results from the
numerical and experimental investigations are compared in Fig. 12
which shows the temperature evolution at the centre of the selected
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 12. Validation of modelling results for Ø 10 mm at 50 and 100 mm/min at
preheating, heating and cooling temperature of 245 ◦ C, 260 ◦ C and 40 ◦ C and Ø 40 mm
at 25 mm/min at preheating, heating and cooling temperature of 220 ◦ C, 240 ◦ C and
30 ◦ C.
rods during the pultrusion process. Note that the x-position has been
normalized to account for the differences in die length between the
Ø 10 and Ø 40 mm die. The temperature evolution over the heating
and cooling die length shows good agreement between simulation and
experiment for all the rod dimensions tested even though the model was
initially developed for Ø 10 mm rods. A slight mismatch between the
simulated and measured temperatures was consistently found towards
the end of the pultrusion die. This effect can be explained by shrinking
effects of the rod, not considered in the model, where the pultrudate
detaches from the wall, decreasing the thermal transfer coefficient and
causing higher temperatures than predicted.
3.3. Material quality of pultruded profiles
Designing the pultrusion dies and selecting the processing parame-
ters according to the developed finite element models resulted in very
good material quality. Fig. 13 shows a representative micrograph taken
from a Ø 40 mm rod at different magnifications, showing very low void
content and good consolidation. The voids were located mainly inside
resin-rich areas towards the centre of the rod, indicating that shrinkage
Fig. 13. Micrographs of Ø 40 mm pultruded rod at different resolutions.
9
Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
Fig. 14. Void content of different diameter pultruded rods for different pultrusion
speeds.
might be the main cause of void formation and not incomplete impreg-
nation. The fibre distribution is not completely homogeneous over the
cross-section, indicating that the mingling quality plays an important
role for the final consolidation quality.
The results of the void content analysis over the whole diameter
and speed range investigated are summarized in Fig. 14. For all rod
diameters, the void content was below 1%, apart from the Ø 20 mm,
25 mm/min experiment, where the material degraded due to prolonged
preheating. Experimental results for the Ø 40 mm rod could only be
performed for low speeds as space constraints limited the maximum
size of the die. However, there is nothing to indicate that the high
quality of impregnation could not be maintained at higher pulling
speeds for this profile size. To investigate the speed limits of this
pultrusion set-up, higher speed pultrusion experiments were performed
for Ø 10 mm profile with the results depicted in Fig. 15. To be able
to achieve pulling speeds above 200 mm/min while still applying
reasonable pulling forces, the volume of material fed through the dies
was reduced to the extent that a void content of 2% would result from
processing the material within the parameter window the dies were
designed for. Under these conditions, void content was observed to
increase linearly with speed until 400 mm/min after which the void
content drastically increased. This rapid increase in void content is
M. Volk et al.
Fig. 15. Void content for lower throughput Ø 10 mm rods at speeds exceeding the
heating and cooling capacity of the die set-up.
caused by the limited die length which prevents complete impregnation
inside the heating die and incomplete cooling inside the cooling die,
leading to deconsolidation of the material at the die exit.
4. Conclusion & outlook
We report for the first time the pultrusion of a solid cross-section
thermoplastic composite rod with a diameter up to Ø 40 mm and void
contents below 2%. This study shows that with careful die design and
selection of the processing parameters based on accurate FEM models,
high quality thermoplastic composite profiles can be obtained from
commingled yarns.
The advantages of thermoplastic composites with regards to cycle
time is limited in pultrusion processes by the need for effective cooling.
As the profile diameter increases so does the volume to surface ratio.
As a result, the speed advantage of processing thermoplastic profiles
decreases significantly with increasing diameter, with the time required
for cooling increasing quadratically with diameter. Even though this
issue can be mitigated to a certain extent by increasing the length of
the cooling die, this would be at the expense of increasing friction and
pultrusion forces.
Experimental validation of the FEM models was made possible using
a novel batch pultrusion process that did not require an expensive creel
and fibre guiding system, but still enabled the study of pultrusion under
steady-state conditions. The fibre straightening, and void evacuation
mechanisms observed through the transparent die indicated that the
developed batch pultrusion process is valid for approximating the
material quality obtainable in continuous pultrusion.
In conclusion, thermoplastic pultrusion is demonstrated to be a
promising approach for large profiles provided thermal management
is taking into account the interaction of the pultrusion die and pul-
trudate depending on the processing parameters. Further investigation
of pulling forces created by friction and bulk compaction of interme-
diate materials during pultrusion of large cross-sections profiles are
suggested as topics of future study.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Maximilian Volk: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Data
curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft. Joanna Wong: Con-
ceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition. Shelly
Arreguin: Writing – review & editing. Paolo Ermanni: Supervision,
Conceptualization, Project administration, Reviewing.
10
Composites Part B 227 (2021) 109339
Acknowledgements
We thank Massimo Brivio and Achim Kupferschmitt for their contri-
bution to the model development and Damiano Keller, Nadine Hertäg,
and Felix Fischer for the experimental validation during their student
thesis at CMASLab. This work has been supported by the Swiss In-
novation Agency (Innosuisse) through the Swiss Competence Center
for Energy Research (SCCER) Efficient Technologies and Systems for
Mobility.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online
at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2021.109339.
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