I. Core Breakthroughs

Breakthrough 1 : Globally, systematic completion of xenon arc flash lamps AFP Quantitative three-dimensional characterization of heat flux from a heat source

Existing AFP Thermal research has primarily focused on lasers and infrared heat sources, yet quantitative experimental studies on xenon‑pulse flash heating remain exceedingly scarce. This paper introduces a novel three‑axis mobile heat‑flux testing fixture, enabling multi‑point irradiation measurements across the entire spatial domain, constructing a three‑dimensional envelope of heat‑flux distribution, and quantifying the energy differences among the irradiated surfaces of the light‑guiding block, thereby filling a critical gap in test data for this new type of pulsed composite heat source.

Breakthrough 2 : Distinguish heating /  The differentiated heat transfer patterns during the cooling stage address the misconception of modeling with a single heat transfer coefficient.

Thermal simulations in the industry commonly employ a uniform convective heat transfer coefficient; this paper demonstrates that: 0.2s During the ultrashort-pulse heating phase, heat flux is overwhelmingly dominant, while convective effects are negligible; for durations of 30s During the cooling phase, air convection serves as the primary mechanism for temperature control. Significant differences exist between the horizontal and vertical heat transfer coefficients of the material, and segmented modeling substantially enhances the accuracy of simulation-based predictions.

Breakthrough 3 Establishing a high-precision transient thermal simulation calibration system driven by measured heat flux.

Abandoning the conventional assumption of a fixed thermal load, the three-dimensional interpolated irradiance field obtained from experiments is used as the simulation boundary condition, in conjunction with material properties. DSC Laser flash analysis of thermal properties was used to calibrate the model, yielding simulated heating and cooling curves that exhibit minimal deviation from infrared measurements, thereby enabling accurate prediction of surface temperatures for arbitrarily shaped geometries.

Breakthrough 4 : Confirming that the broad-spectrum radiation of xenon lamps is compatible with heterogeneous carbon-fiber composites.

The laser emits a single narrow-band wavelength, making fiber formation easy. /  Resin absorption imbalance; xenon lamp covers the ultraviolet range. -  Near-infrared full spectrum, carbon filament and PAEK The matrix absorbs heat efficiently and synchronously, ensuring more uniform layer‑by‑layer melting, significantly reducing localized under‑melting and resin degradation defects, and broadening the processing window for thermoplastic composites.

II. Technological Innovation

Innovation 1  Multi-sensor Collaborative In-situ Heat Flux Testing Platform

• Core hardware: six-axis AFP Robot +  Xenon arc flash heating unit, equipped with a three-axis precision positioning fixture and water cooling. Gardner Heat flux sensor (maximum 1MW/m ² range), high-speed infrared thermal imager;
• Variable Gradient Test: 1240W/4132W/7025W Three-level lamp power, 6/12/18mm Material distance: spatial heat flux data are collected in two-layer cross-sections, totaling hundreds of sets.
• Calibration scheme: Infrared calibration using a chessboard pattern to eliminate temperature measurement errors caused by the imaging angle, ensuring consistent temperature measurements across the entire field of view.

Innovation 2  Three-dimensional irradiation analysis technology for pentahedral quartz light-guiding blocks

• Innovative light-guiding structure: internal reflection and light concentration achieved through five inclined quartz surfaces, 2/4 The irradiated surface has the highest energy, 1/5 The irradiance on both end faces decreases significantly;
• RBF The radial basis function interpolation algorithm generates a continuous three-dimensional thermal flux envelope from discrete measurement points, enabling rapid computation of incident irradiance values on arbitrary surfaces.
• Distance‑dependent attenuation: As the material moves farther from the light guide block, the irradiance decreases rapidly in a nonlinear fashion, with a more pronounced attenuation under high‑power operating conditions.

Innovation 3 CF/PAEK Complete standardized thermal property testing procedure

• LFA The laser flash analyzer measures the thermal diffusivity, in conjunction with density, DSC Specific heat calculation of planar thermal conductivity;
• DSC Nitrogen atmosphere 50 – 250 A temperature‑rising scan was performed to obtain the heat capacity curves at various temperatures.
• All material property data are imported into the simulation, eliminating model distortion caused by unknown thermal parameters of the materials.

Innovation 4  Segmented Transient Finite Element Thermal Simulation Modeling Method

• Two-stage, step-by-step solution: In the first stage, pulse heating ( 0.2s ) Apply a heat flux boundary; the second stage is natural cooling ( 30s ) Load convective conditions;
• Regional convective assignment: Heat exchange of materials on the parallel light-guiding surface 60 W/(m ²・ K) , horizontally placed materials only 35 W/(m ²・ K) ；
• Grid‑independence verification ensures that the computational results are stable and reliable, while balancing accuracy and computational efficiency.

III. Application Scenarios

• Aviation high-temperature thermoplastic ( CF/PEEK、CF/PAEK ) AFP Mass-production line (core scenario)

Development of an in-situ lay-up process for high-temperature load-bearing components of airframes and engines, leveraging the thermal‑flow simulation presented herein to pre‑optimize xenon‑lamp power and material spacing, thereby balancing the risks of complete resin melting and high‑temperature degradation while minimizing interlaminar porosity and debonding defects.

• AFP Research and Development of a Novel Heating Module for the Spreading Head

Equipment manufacturers have developed a flash‑type thermal source deposition head, adopted a standardized thermal‑flux characterization testing protocol, compared the irradiation uniformity of various quartz light‑guiding structures, optimized the optical‑path design, and reduced procurement costs for high‑cost thermal sources such as lasers.

• Pre‑process simulation for the manufacturing of hyperbolic curvature composite components

Temperature prediction for saddle‑shaped skin layup in pressure vessels and aerospace vehicles: due to varying distances between different regions of the curved surface and the light‑guiding blocks, lamp power is automatically partitioned via a three‑dimensional thermal‑flow envelope, ensuring uniform melting across the entire area.

• Thermoplastic AFP Building a Digital Twin Temperature Module

Integrate the xenon lamp irradiation interpolation model into the production line’s digital twin, enabling real-time operation based on the robot. TCP Position‑based dynamic calculation of local heat input enables closed-loop temperature control.

• Benchmark for Thermal Forming of Composite Materials in Higher Education Institutions

It provides a standardized workflow for thermal source characterization, thermophysical property measurement, and simulation calibration, serving as a unified benchmark for cross‑method comparative experiments involving laser, infrared, and flash heating schemes.

IV. Summary of the Article

(1) Core Research Findings

• Xenon arc flash lamps rely on full-spectrum radiation, targeting carbon fibers. /  The polyaryletherketone composite exhibits superior heating uniformity compared to a single-color laser; the pentahedral quartz light-guiding block generates an asymmetric three-dimensional thermal field. 2、4  The surface receives the strongest irradiation energy;
• Lamp power and the distance between the material and the light guide block are the two primary control variables governing heat flux; irradiance decays rapidly and nonlinearly with increasing distance.
• 3 AFP Thermal simulation must address the heating and cooling phases separately: for pulsed heating, convective heat transfer can be neglected, while during the cooling phase, the orientation of the material directly determines the magnitude of the heat transfer coefficient.
• A transient finite-element model based on interpolation of measured three-dimensional heat flux can accurately reproduce the temperature field throughout the entire heating and cooling process, eliminating the need for repeated physical trial‑lays to optimize the process.

(II) Engineering Application Value

Traditional laser AFP Equipment acquisition and operational maintenance costs are high, and narrow-band light sources can easily lead to localized overheating or insufficient resin melting. This study comprehensively validates the feasibility of using a xenon flash lamp as a low-cost alternative heat source and provides a complete set of standardized tools, ranging from heat‑flux measurement to simulation‑based prediction. Enterprises can leverage this framework to rapidly optimize the optical path of the layup head and process parameters, reduce porosity and delamination defects in thermoplastic components, significantly cut down on the costs of iterative prototyping, and advance the development of high‑temperature thermoplastics. AFP Scaled implementation.

(3) Current Research Limitations

Only flat‑plate static material testing was conducted, with no validation performed under dynamic layup conditions using spherical and saddle‑shaped hyperbolic molds; only for CF/PAEK Single material, not expanded. PEEK 、 PPA Thermoplastic systems; a real-time temperature feedback closed-loop control system has not yet been established.

(IV) Future Expansion Directions

• Experimental validation of the thermal flux and temperature field on curved surfaces under dynamic robotic placement conditions.
• Various types of high-temperature thermoplastic prepreg tapes ( PEEK , Comparison of heat source compatibility for glass-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics;
• Infrared temperature measurement -  Development of hardware and software for real-time closed-loop power control of xenon lamps;
• Coupled heat -  Multi-field mechanical simulation, establishing temperature… -  Quantitative relationship of interlayer shear strength.

(5) Industry Insights

Thermoplastic AFP The key to in-situ consolidation quality lies in uniform heat input across the entire area. The xenon‑arc flash‑pulse heat source boasts two major advantages—low cost and broad‑spectrum absorption—making it the core heating solution for next‑generation, low‑cost, high‑end layup heads. Process development should not rely on manual, iterative trial layups; instead, it should employ “multi‑sensor heat‑flux characterization.” +  “3D interpolation thermal simulation” offers a digital workflow that employs differentiated heat-transfer modeling for the heating and cooling phases, enabling precise control of laminate peak temperature and melt‑time. This approach balances interfacial adhesion with resin thermal degradation, significantly improving the yield of high‑temperature composite part formation.

Image and Text Guide

Figure 1. Internal Automated Fiber Optic Cabling (AFP) System.

Table 1.  Flash Input Parameters

Figure 2. Used for measurement Humm3 An experimental setup for measuring the irradiance distribution around a xenon arc flash lamp system, employing a water-cooled flux sensor mounted on a three-axis miniature frame.

Figure 3. (a) For each cross-section where testing is conducted; (b) Display the faceted quartz light-guiding crystal, along with the measurement points on each cross-section (marked by red dots).

Figure 4. (a) Schematic diagram of the experimental setup, showing the infrared camera relative to the quartz block and… CF- PAEK The position of the panel; (b) The schematic diagram illustrates CF- PAEK The panel relative to the distance from three crystal faces 12 Different orientations of quartz blocks at the millimeter scale: (i) Crystal face 2 ; ( ii ) Crystal face 4 ; ( iii ) Crystal face 3。

Figure 5.  In the plane 2 On the surface 4 of the L1 Region (see figure) 3 ) From the surface 6 Sample data measured at the millimeter level. (a) : Measurement results of flux irradiance intensity under three test lamp power levels; (b) : The relationship between average flux intensity and the distance from the normal to the quartz light-guiding surface, as well as lamp power.

Figure 6 : Curve of normalized irradiance as a function of distance from the facet; (a) 4 Number facet L1 Measurement point, (b) 4 Number facet L2 Measurement point. Refer to the figure for the location of the measurement point. 3。

Figure 7.  At a lamp power of 7025 W At that time, the cross-section (a) Plane -1 and (b) Plane -2 Interpolated flux distribution curve on the surface

Figure 8.  According to Article 2.4  According to the experimental results described in the section, measurements were taken parallel to… (a) Crystal face 2、 (b) Crystal face 3  and (c) Crystal face 4  Magnetic flux distribution curve at the flat surface. All dimensions are in millimeters.

Figure 9. Temperature color‑map distribution during the heating phase. The figure also shows CF- PAEK Numerical simulation results and experimental data for the direction parallel to the fourth crystal plane of the panel.

Figure 10 . Temperature cloud map during the cooling phase. The figure shows a view parallel to 4  Carbon fiber-reinforced polyaryletherketone with numbered facets ( CF-PAEK ) Numerical simulation results for the plate and experimental measured data.

Figure 11.CF- PAEK Top edge of the panel (a) Horizontal line and (b) Comparison of simulation results and experimental data for vertical-line plotting (this panel is parallel to the …) 4 Crystal face).

Figure 12.  Face 4 Temperature-time variation curve, comparing experimental and simulation results: (a) Comparison of contour maps at the maximum temperature during the heating phase; (b) Heating and cooling phases. The colored contour plots in the figure show the temperature field distributions at the end of the heating phase for both the experiments and the simulations.

Figure 13.  face 2 the temperature - Time–response diagram, comparing experimental and simulation results: (a) Comparison of contour maps at the maximum temperature during the heating phase; (b) Heating and cooling phases. The color maps in the figure show the temperature field distributions at the end of the heating phase for both experiments and simulations.

Figure 14.  face 3 the temperature - Time–response diagram, comparing experimental and simulation results: (a) Comparison of contour maps at the maximum temperature during the heating phase; (b) Heating and cooling phases. The color maps in the figure show the temperature field distributions at the end of the heating phase for both experiments and simulations.

Figure A.15 Infrared Thermography Test Platform for Carbon Fiber Specimens

Figure A.16 Infrared thermal imager calibration results: The measured temperatures at multiple set temperature points within the target temperature range are compared with the true temperatures.

Figure B.17 Simulation result independence verification curve: (a) Unit-size independence analysis, (b) Time-step independence analysis.

Figure B.18 Demonstrated in (a) Heating phase and (b) During the cooling phase, facing 3 Temperature profile diagrams under different convective heat transfer coefficient values.