Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesa

Induction welding of thermoplastic compositesan overview

T.J. Ahmed
b

a,b,*

, D. Stavrov b, H.E.N. Bersee b, A. Beukers

a
Netherlands Institute for Metals Research, Mekelweg 2, 2628CD Delft, The Netherlands
Design and Production of Composite Structures, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 3,
2629HS Delft, The Netherlands

Received 6 July 2005; received in revised form 20 October 2005; accepted 20 October 2005

Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the process of induction welding of thermoplastic composites. The main objective is
to provide a deeper insight into the nature of the induction welding process and to summarise the investigative eort that was put into it
by a large group of researchers. The main focus is put on the types of heat generation mechanisms during the induction heating process
and the parameters that govern the welding process (frequency, power, pressure, residence time), as well as on the secondary phenomena
that can inuence the quality of the weld. An overview of the experimental procedure is also presented, with an emphasis on the experimental set-up. Finally, a brief overview of the modelling of the heat generation mechanisms and the induction welding process is
presented.
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Thermoplastic resin; B. Mechanical properties; E. Joining

1. Introduction
As a result of their growing potential for high performance applications, continuous bre-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs) are becoming of greater
interest for the industry. Recently developed matrix materials used for manufacturing thermoplastic composites
(TPCs) yield materials with basic mechanical properties
(strength, stiness) much the same, if not better than the
thermosets (TS) [1]. Additionally, TPCs also show a number of advantages when compared to the TS, among which
improved toughness, better environmental resistance (high
temperature, moisture, aggressive uids), shorter processing times, non-ammability and innite shelf life [2,3].
One of their most important advantage lies in the possibility for a low-cost, rapid production [4]. However, due to
the limited deformation allowed for the reinforcing bres,
currently produced thermoplastic components have rather
*

Corresponding author. Address: Netherlands Institute for Metals

Research, Mekelweg 2, 2628CD Delft, The Netherlands.
E-mail address: t.j.ahmed@lr.tudelft.nl (T.J. Ahmed).
1359-835X/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2005.10.009

simple geometry, which makes joining an indispensable

step in the manufacturing process of TPCs.
Joining has proved to be a critical step in the process of
manufacturing thermoplastic composite (TPC) products,
because it can initiate a number of irregularities in the
structure that can result in weakening of the properties.
Traditional joining methods for metals and thermosets
(mechanical fastening and adhesive bonding) are feasible,
but not ideal for TPCs. Mechanical fastening has a number
of disadvantages: introducing stress concentrations in the
material, delamination during drilling, dierent thermal
expansion of the fasteners relative to the composite, water
intrusion into the joint, possible galvanic corrosion, weight
increase and extensive labour and time requirements.
Adhesive bonding also presents some diculties when
applied on TPCs. It requires extensive surface preparation,
generally dicult to control in industrial environment, and
adhesives used (usually epoxies) have long curing cycles. It
can also be dicult for the chemically inert thermoplastic
matrix to bond [17].
Fusion bonding is a joining method that uses the property of thermoplastic matrices to ow when heated above

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

their glass transition temperature Tg (for amorphous polymers) or the crystalline melting point Tm (for semi-crystalline polymers) and regain their mechanical properties after
cooling down. Known also as welding, it can be generally
described as joining of two parts by fusing their contact
interfaces, followed by cooling (consolidating) under pressure that enables the bond to be made. It overcomes all
problems connected to the traditional techniques mentioned above. Fusion bonding is widely considered to be
the ideal bonding technique for TPCs.
The heat needed for melting the joint interface can be
applied by various means, e.g. hot plates, hot gas, friction,
ultrasonic and radio signal, microwaves, Joule eect in a
resistor, laser and induction, to mention some of them.
From this variety of means, three are considered to have
greatest potential for future development: ultrasonic, resistance and induction welding. A large number of research
studies were performed on these three techniques. That
resulted in the publication of several mainly collective overviews of the three welding techniques [510] that oered
full descriptions of the processes and their advantages.
This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the
process of induction welding of TPCs. The main objective
is to provide a deeper insight into the nature of the induction welding process and the investigative eort that was
put into it by a large group of researchers. After a general
description of the induction welding process, an overview
of the experimental procedure is presented, with an emphasis on the experimental set-up. The main focus is set on
types of heating that occur during the induction heating
process and the parameters that govern the welding process
(frequency, power, pressure, residence time), as well as on
the secondary phenomena that can inuence the quality
of the weld. Finally, the modelling of the heat generation
mechanisms and the induction welding process is briey
discussed.

1639

2. Induction welding
Induction welding is a unique process in that it requires
no contact between the induction coil or the heat susceptor and can be designed such that no heat is produced
outside of the desired weld area. The process of heating
by induction is not a new technology and since 1916
has most frequently been used for heating metals [11].
Only within the last two decades has this type of heating
come into the scope for heating composites and is proving
itself to be a very eective method for the high-speed processing of welding bre-reinforced thermoplastic composites [12]. In addition, the process is extremely versatile
with similar and dissimilar thermoplastics that can be
welded, as well as thermoplastic to non-thermoplastic
materials [13,14].
The principle behind the process itself is simple. When
an alternating voltage is placed across a conductive coil,
an alternating current is produced. Subsequently this alternating current induces a time variable magnetic eld which
has the same frequency as the alternating current causing
it. When a magnetically susceptible and electrically conductive material is placed in the vicinity of the coil and its alternating magnetic eld, eddy currents are induced, with a
frequency matched to that of the magnetic eld. A condition imposed on the material is that closed-loop circuits
must be present for eddy currents to be induced. In the case
of bre-reinforced thermoplastics, closed-loop circuits in
the form of a conductive network is produced through
weaves or cross plies, for example. The eddy currents are
met with the resistance of the material and energy is lost
in the form of heat. There are four mechanisms that result
in heat production and will be further discussed in Section
3. Pressure can then be applied during or after heating to
complete the welding process. A schematic diagram is
shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Induction welding process; susceptor and susceptorless heating.

1640

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

2.1. Welding set-up

The type of apparatus required to produce a fully working set-up varies for dierent applications, but the equipment can easily be divided into four parts [13,15]. The
rst is the radio frequency (rf) power generator, which supplies the necessary current and voltage to the induction
coil. The second is the heat station which includes the
induction coil and produces the magnetic eld needed to
heat the material. The third constituent is the composite
workpiece material itself and nally, the fourth involves
the secondary equipment such as the water cooling system,
which is discussed in detail in [11,16], and xtures.
2.1.1. Power source
The power supply is extremely important and aects the
reliability, maintainability, compactness, energy eciency
and cost of the overall system [17]. Each of the systems uses
an input power of 230 V or 340 V alternating current (ac)
with a frequency of 5060 Hz. The alternating input current is changed into a direct current (dc) to create a more
controllable input, which is then changed back into the
required output ac. The frequency, voltage and power of
the output ac is dened by the induction coil used in interaction with the workpiece [11,18]. Finally, in order to operate at the coils highest eciency, the current is passed
through a load matching station.
Induction power sources come in two forms; solid state
or vacuum tube, and dier in the frequency range that can
be produced. The older vacuum tube power source uses
vacuum oscillator tubes for changing the dc to ac. These
types of oscillators are normally used for frequency ranges
between 200 kHz and 2 MHz and higher power ranges
above 10 kW but because of lower eciency factors,
solid-state power supplies are preferred if available [11].
The solid-state power source is capable of a frequency up
to 1 MHz, are smaller than the vacuum tube power sources
and have a higher eciency. Conversion eciency factors
of a solid-state power source are greater compared to that
for vacuum tube power sources [17], with 5560% for a
vacuum tube compared to 8595% for a solid state [19].
2.1.2. Heat station
The heat station is the second segment of the induction
heating apparatus and uses a capacitor and a coil to heat
the workpiece. The design of the capacitor to match both
the power output and the induction coil power requirements is described in detail elsewhere in [17,16].
Energy is transferred to the workpiece through the
induction coil. The energy transfer mechanism can be modelled using the transformer principle [20] where the induction coil can be seen as the transformers primary coil
and the workpiece the transformers secondary coil. In an
ideal situation where there is a 100% coupling eciency,
100% of the power provided by the coil is transferred
through air to the workpiece. In this case, the relation
between the induction coil and the workpiece can be

derived according to the transformer law Iw = NcIc, where

subscripts w and c indicate the workpiece and coil respectively and Nc is the number of coil windings. Following
this, the generated energy in the workpiece, Ew is then
given by Eq. 1 which relates the eects of the coil on the
workpiece.
Ew P w t I 2w Rw t N 2c I 2c Rw t

In reality, there is not a 100% coupling eciency between

the coil and workpiece since the coupling is through air,
and ideally a reduction factor should be introduced into
Eq. 1 to reect this. However, the coupling eciency is a
complex factor that depends on many parameters such as
the coilworkpiece distance, the workpiece itself and the
coil geometry. It is unknown how such factors may inuence heating eciency quantitatively and this point has
generally been avoided in previous studies. Instead, it is
accepted that the coil should be as close as possible to
the workpiece for maximum coupling eciency [20].
The coil geometry also has a great inuence on the heat
generated within the workpiece and the importance of the
design has been discussed in [21,22]. It is possible to design
the induction coil such that the associated magnetic eld is
focused onto the specic weld zone that needs to be heated.
When designing the coil geometry several design considerations need to be taken into account in order to produce
the most ecient and uniform heating eect:
 Due to the higher magnetic ux density near the coil, the
coil should be as close to the workpiece, and as fully
over the weld area as possible to assure maximum
energy transfer [11,23]. The time for welding is also
aected by the distance and doubling the workpiececoil
separation has been found to increase welding time by
300400% [24].
 The shape of the magnetic eld is asymmetric due to the
coil connections to the heat station xtures. Hence the
resulting heating pattern of a symmetrical coil is distorted [20]. In addition, at the point of the coil connection the magnetic eld is weaker, which is caused by
magnetic eld cancellation of the two parallel connections [20].
 The rest of the coil needs to be designed to prevent magnetic eld cancellation such that if at any point two
lengths of the coil are running parallel to each other,
the distance between them should be altered to prevent
eld cancellations [16,20].
 When working with composites the frequencies used are
higher than the frequencies used for heating metals.
Therefore the system has tendencies for overloading
and arcing between coil passages [15].
For heating application on composites three dierent coil
types can be considered as shown in Fig. 2 [13]: a single
turn coil, a solenoid coil and a pancake coil, and numerous
variations on these basic types. The single turn coil has a
magnetic eld that is concentrated around its diameter

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

1641

The load power dissipated is given by Joules law in

which the resistance is the sum of Rp and Rs. Secondly
the output current is the output voltage of the converter
divided by the circuit impedance, Z:
I out
Fig. 2. Basic coil shapes [10]. (a) Single turn, (b) solenoid and (c) pancake.

and is therefore used in applications where circular areas

are to be heated. The solenoid is eectively an enlarged single turn coil and is able to heat larger cylindrical areas that
are passed through its centre. Finally, the pancake coil is
able to heat large at areas and can be used on either side
of a weld zone to give good localised heating. This was conrmed by Miller et al. [25,23] and Rudolf et al. [24] and was
concluded that heating the weld from both sides is most
eective for creating a uniform through-the-thickness heating zone. A uniform area of heat can be created with little
temperature variation in the width of the heated zone.
2.1.3. Workpiece and load matching
The highest energy transfer between the workpiece and
the coil is achievable through the process of adjusting the
three induction parameters, voltage, power and frequency
in such a way that the induction coil will operate at its maximum eciency. This is the process of load matching. The
maximum eciency of an induction coil lies at its resonant
frequency. In a normal induction process the induction coil
and therefore its input characteristics are designed according to the desired input of the workpiece. Consequently the
output characteristics of the power source need to be
matched to the induction coil. The circuit representation
of the power source, heat station and workpiece is shown
in Fig. 3. In this gure Rp is the resistance of the coil, Rs
is the reective resistance of the secondary eddy current
path in the workpiece to the primary circuit, XLp is the primary reactance of the work coil, XLs is the reactance of the
secondary eddy current path reected to the primary circuit
and XLg is the reective reactance of the secondary air gap
between the coil and the workpiece. This indicates that the
current in the power source is inuenced by the workpiece
itself and the inductor.

Fig. 3. Equivalent induction heating system circuit [17].

V
V

Z Rp Rs jX Ip X Is X Ig

The formula shows that the output current, and consequently power, depends on several factors, such as coil
workpiece geometry, material properties and frequency.
To be more specic, the region of optimal eciency is
not only dened by the power source, but also by the workpiece. Therefore for each dierent application dierent
machine settings are used. Each of these parameters is a
non-linear function and in turn depend on other factors.
2.1.4. Welding xture
The nal part of the induction welding apparatus is the
test environment itself and more specically, the apparatus
where the workpiece is held. To avoid heating of the test
equipment, it is important to avoid the use of magnetically
susceptible materials within the vicinity of the magnetic
eld [15]. In cases where this is not possible, sucient cooling is necessary. It is also possible to create distance
between the xtures and the coil such that the magnetic
eld has little to no inuence. For example, a concrete slab
has been used to provide this distance between the surface
on which the workpiece is placed and the coil [26]. In these
cases where the use of metal xtures are unavoidable, the
concrete is also a sucient an insulator that acts to insulate
between the workpiece and metallic xtures underneath to
avoid the metal heating up the workpiece. In this way,
uneven heating through the thickness is avoided. However,
the surrounding area inuenced by the magnetic coil is relatively small and can be localised as will be described in
Section 3.
In order to aid in the consolidation process, pressure
needs to be applied. A number of methods have been
established to provide continuous and discontinuous pressure and two examples are shown in Fig. 4. In order for

Fig. 4. Methods of consolidation. Continuous: (i) moving platform with

pressure rollers [27,29] and discontinuous: (ii) vacuum bagging [28].

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T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

continuous welding to take place, the workpieces must be

heated by induction rst, after which, delamination occurs.
In order to reconsolidate and remove voids, the weld
region is passed through pressure rollers. The consolidated
structure is then allowed to cool under controlled conditions [27]. There are a number of variations for continuous
induction welding but are all based on coil/pressure roller
combinations.
Vacuum bagging moulding has been used as a discontinuous method of applying pressure [28], which allows for a
uniform distribution of pressure to be applied over the
entire surface of the weld zone. However, this method is
limited to thermoplastics with extremely low viscosity at
elevated temperatures.
3. Heating process
Heat is produced within the composite workpiece as a
response to the magnetic eld, but where and how the heat
is produced depends on the material properties. The material itself can act as the susceptor [12,23,25,27,3032] and is
desirable because of the absence of a contaminating insert
from the bond line which can weaken the mechanical
strength of the bond [12]. Alternatively an insert can be
included at the weld [3237] as heat can be generated and
concentrated within the weld zone, even when the adherends are also magnetically susceptible. It is unclear in susceptor versus susceptorless welds, as to which produces the
better quality weld and consequently much research eort
has been spent in this area. Furthermore, how the workpiece generates heat has been the source of much debate
over the past decade, and the arguments put forward for
each theory is described in this section.
3.1. Heating of bre-reinforced thermoplastic composites
As previously mentioned in Section 2, a conductive loop
needs to be present in order for eddy currents to be induced
in the workpiece. Heat energy, E, is produced according to
Joules law, E = I2Rt where I is the current, R is the resistance and t is the time of exposure to the magnetic eld.
The rate of heating is dependent on the frequency and
intensity of the eddy current and the electrical resistance,
specic heat and magnetic permeability of the material
[11]. Miller et al. [23] have shown that the eddy currents
induced in the workpiece form a global loop that is the mirror image of the coil. A consequence of this is that the cur-

rent produces its own magnetic eld which is able to cancel

the magnetic eld in the deeper regions of the workpiece
[23]. This extent of cancellation depends on the size of
the induced current at the surface nearest to the coil. The
current can only move along electrically conductive paths,
or the conductive bres. In prepreg stacks lying perpendicular to each other, this means that the mirror image is more
rectangular in shape. Woven plies however, have been
found to produce a more similar image to the coil and this
has been attributed to the high incidence of electrical
contact within the weave [23].
Three categories of heating mechanisms have been identied, namely Joule loss, junction heating and hysteresis
loss. These mechanisms dier in where exactly the heating
takes place within the workpiece, and are summarised diagrammatically in Fig. 5. There have been diering views as
to which is the predominant mechanism, with junction
heating gaining the majority of attention. A number of
studies have used various surface temperature monitoring
techniques and have found Joule loss to be a secondary
mechanism [30,38,39]. However, it has recently been suggested that the structure of the workpiece itself determines
the nature of the heating mechanism that takes place [40].
3.1.1. Joule lossbre heating
Fibre heating is the result of Joule losses due to the
inherent resistance of the bres and is therefore dependent
on bre length, resistivity and cross-sectional area. Mitchang et al. [27] singled the bre heating mechanism as
the primary source of heat. Using infra-red camera observations, negligible dierences were found in the temperatures obtained between carbon bre weave/PPS matrix
and virgin carbon bre woven fabric. This led to the conclusion that the matrix provided little contribution to heating and therefore bre heating was prevalent. Similar
results have been found by Lin et al. [25]. However, for
bre heating to occur, it has also been found that there
needs to be a very low contact resistance between perpendicular bres, which occurs when there is a very high incidence of bre contact [40].
3.1.2. Junction heatingdielectric hysteresis heating
This rst type of junction heating is based on the observation that the bres of the prepreg or preconsolidated
laminates at the bond line are separated by very thin layers
of matrix material. Upon the application of an alternating
electric eld, a potential dierence is created between the

Fig. 5. Induction heating mechanisms [45]. (a) Fibre heating, (b) dielectric hysteresis and (c) contact resistance.

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

bres, and a capacitor eect is created. Dielectric heating

occurs due to the movement of charge and rotation of
the molecules between the bres. The inuence of the intersections on the heating behavior has been researched by
Fink et al. [30]. Dielectric heating can be modelled as a conductive loop with a resistance and a capacitor placed in
parallel. The resistance between the bres can be calculated
by [40]
h
Rdh
3
we0 kd 2f tan d
where h is the distance between the bres, e0 is the permittivity of a vacuum, k and tan d are the dielectric constant
and the dissipation factor of the polymer respectively,
and df is the diameter of the bre. From this, and from
the support of developed models, Gillespie et al. [41] have
concluded that to maximise the dielectric heating eect of
cross ply or angle ply laminates, the ply thickness above
and below the interface and the bre volume fraction
should be maximised, and bre diameter and interply resin
thickness minimised. As further support to the dielectric
heating mechanism, Fink et al. [42] have observed that different polymers heat to dierent degrees and this dierence
is attributed to the dielectric properties of the polymers.
3.1.3. Junction heatingcontact resistance heating
The nal heating mechanism arises when the incidence
of bre-to-bre contact is high. In the case of higher bre
volume fraction angled plies, contact resistance heating
may be dominant and depends on the contact resistance
at the bre junction and the voltage drop across it [40].
Squeeze ow of the matrix out of the laminate during consolidation and bre waviness contributes to this incidence
[43]. As a result of the contact, there is a large temperatureand pressure-dependent resistance at bre junctions which
generates heat [40]. Direct contact is not necessary for contact heating to occur, provided that the distance between
the bres is small enough for electrons to pass through this
layer [43]. In order to test for this type of heating mechanism, Yarlagadda et al. [39] applied an ac induction eld
and a dc voltage to unidirectional strips arranged as a
square loop. Both cases produced eective heating at the
bre junctions, thereby discounting frequency-dependent
dielectric hysteresis. In addition, it was found that uniform
intimate contact is necessary for more uniform heating of
the workpiece, identifying the importance of surface roughness on the extent of contact heating [39,44].
3.1.4. Joule loss versus junction heating
Although many studies have aimed to show which is the
outright dominant heating mechanism, it is most likely that
this depends on a number of parameters. Yarlagadda et al.
[40] numerically veried that bre heating is dominant only
in cases where the contact resistance between the bres is
low. This not only depends on the type of bres that are
being heated, but also on the workpiece architecture. Prepregs or cross plies will show a junction heating dominance

1643

where contact resistance is higher. Weaves and knitted fabric will show bre heating dominance due to a larger area
of contact between the bres and thus a lower contact resistance. Moreover, the processing parameters can shift the
heating mechanism from junction heating to joule loss
[40]. As the workpiece heats, the viscosity of the matrix
lowers and, upon the application of sucient pressure,
squeeze-out of the matrix occurs. This results in higher
bre contact and bre-dominated heating results [40].
3.1.5. Hysteresis loss
The nal heating process that can occur is due to hysteresis losses within magnetic materials [11,12]. When a magnetic material is exposed to the alternating magnetic eld,
the magnetic dipoles of the material change to realign with
the eld. Hysteresis indicates that energy is needed to turn
around the small internal magnets of the material to align
with the alternating magnetic eld, as shown in Fig. 6. As
the magnetic dipoles rotate, they vibrate and energy is lost
in the form of heat due to friction. Of the composite bres
that are currently used, none are magnetic and therefore
hysteresis loss is not applicable. However, if a metallic susceptor is introduced into the workpiece, hysteresis loss
becomes a source of heating.
This heating process only occurs up to the point of the
Curie temperature of the magnetic material; the point at
which the material becomes non-ferromagnetic. At this
point, the material can no longer generate heat and sustains
its Curie temperature even when a higher magnetic eld
strength is applied [46]. In this way, good temperature
control of the weld can be maintained [46].
3.2. Heating elements
In cases where the adherends are not magnetically susceptible, or controlled and localised heating is necessary,
heating elements are used as inserts in the weld. Two main
types of heating elements are available for the process of
induction welding which are common to all types of electromagnetic welding, and come in the form of a powder or
mesh. Similarly with the bre case, the prerequisites are that
they are susceptible to the eects of an electromagnetic eld,

Fig. 6. Hysteresis loss [11].

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T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

have enough electrical resistance to produce heat and form

a conductive closed-loop network. Therefore any electrically conductive material can be used as a heating element
[47]. The use of inserts as a magnetic susceptor has a few
advantages over using the bres themselves. Firstly, heat
can be provided exactly where is needed and thermal
stress build-up is prevented in other areas of the workpiece
and assembly [13]. The susceptors may also be coated in
resin which help to ll voids in the weld zone and also can
be a blend of two matrices in the case of joining dissimilar
thermoplastic materials. Finally, non-conductive bres,
such as glass or aramid, are not excluded and can also be
welded. Many studies have focused on the use of metallic
powder interdispersed in thermoplastic resin [13,15,46].
Generally, the frequency needed to heat the weld with such
inserts are up to one order of magnitude higher than bre
inserts and the more costly vacuum tube power source are
needed.
Metal meshes have emerged as eective susceptors
[33,35,47] but there are a few important parameters aecting the eectiveness of these inserts. For good bonding of
the mesh inserts to the adherends, sucient resin must be
available and hence embedding the mesh in the required
polymer is necessary. Studies that have focused on metal
mesh susceptors have found problems with uniform heating of the composite laminate aggravated by the non-uniformity of the magnetic eld generated by the induction
coil [48]. Yarlagadda et al. [48] went some way to solving
this by selectively removing segments of the mesh. However, the insert could act as a contaminant, inducing stress
concentrations and residual stresses due to dierences in
thermal expansion, and environmental degradation of
the weld [12]. Mahdi et al. [28] found that there was poor
adhesion between the metal mesh insert and resin used.
Although not a largely signicant loss in shear strength
was observed during lap shear testing, the eects of such
poor adhesion under dierent loadings, such as fatigue
cycles, could prove to be detrimental. This highlights the
importance of adequate surface preparation of such

inserts. Finally, depending on the area to be welded, there

is also the importance of the eect of the weight penalty
structures where weight reduction is a premier design goal
[49].
3.2.1. A comparison of weld congurations
The simplest way to compare a weld with a susceptor to
one without is to use lap shear strength (LSS) data. LSS
data has most commonly been used in the literature as an
indicator of the quality of the weld. Table 1 displays the
strength values for various laminates, weld and workpiece
congurations obtained from previous studies. It should
be indicated that bond strength depends on the weld
parameters, which will be described in Section 4, and materials used to produce the joint, accounting for the range of
values listed. It is also possible that LSS data does not give
a clear picture about the quality of the weld and for this
reason, various studies have instead used a number of other
tests such as double cantilever beam, fatigue and exure
[21,28,50,51]. Such research has found that induction welding produces comparable, if not better, joints in comparison to oven-cured or bolted joints.
3.3. Edge eects
One of the major issues associated with induction welding is an eect arising from the geometry of the weld zone.
This so-called edge eect results from a coils proximity to
an edge of the workpiece. As an example, if a simple circular pancake coil is considered, eddy currents induced in the
workpiece create global current loops that are circular in
nature. Fig. 7(i) shows the eddy current path produced
by such a coil and an example of the corresponding temperature prole taken across line AA, for a workpiece that is
larger than the coil. At the edges, and especially at the corners, there is a large area for eddy currents to ow. This
results in lower current densities in these regions and less
heat is generated, as shown by the lower temperature
proles at the edges of the workpiece [23].

Table 1
Comparison of lap shear strength values
Reference

LSS (MPa)

Laminate type

Weld conguration

Border and Salas [12]

Cogswell et al. [31]
Schwartz [5]
Mitschang [27]
van Wijngaarden [32]
Cogswell et al. [31]
Border and Salas [12]
Todd et al. [7]
Williams et al. [37]
Nagumo et al. [35]
Hodges et al. [33]
Whitworth [51]
van Wijngaarden [32]
Suwanwatana et al. [46]
van Wijngaarden [32]

27
31
3848
30
25
36
44
33
46
1722
4148
27
18
20
10

Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PPS
Carbon/PPS
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEEK
Carbon/PEKK
Carbon/PPS
Glass/PPS
Glass/PPS

No insert
No insert
No insert
No insert
No insert
PEEK lm insert
PEEK lm insert
PEI/PEEK lm
Woven carbon bre insert
Metal mesh
Metal mesh and PEEK insert
PEKK lm insert
Expanded metal foil
Nickel/PSU lm insert
Expanded metal foil

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

1645

be shortly addressed in this section. When designing an

induction heating set up it can be a help to know the cause
of these eects for problem solving.
A main consideration for design is how to control and
concentrate the magnetic eld onto the workpiece. However, due to eld interactions inherent to the coil, the
resulting heat zone is not symmetrical. The generated heat
is directly related to the power inside the workpiece. To
make a good prediction of transferred power inside the
workpiece it is important to know each of the dierent
causes for an asymmetrical power density and thus asymmetrical heating zone.

Fig. 7. An example of edge eects resulting from changes in workpiece

geometry.

If the size of the workpiece is reduced, as shown in

Fig. 7(ii) and (iii) the currents are unable to follow the
shape of the coil. In order to create closed-loop paths,
the eddy currents are then forced to travel along the edge
of the laminate in closest proximity to the coil [23]. Higher
current densities and higher temperatures in these regions
result, as indicated by the temperature proles.
It is the higher temperatures that arise at the edge of the
workpiece that is the most dicult to eliminate and there
have been some eorts to minimise edge eects, or to avoid
them altogether. The simplest and most common method is
to use models to predict where excessive edge heating may
occur. Changes to the coil design can then be made to
counteract this eect [25,27]. However, the procedure
becomes more complex as the coil design, workpiece geometry and layup becomes more complex.
Another method has been aimed at preventing edge
eects of susceptor materials placed at the weld line. The
process involves redirecting eddy current ow paths in
metal mesh susceptors by selectively cutting patterns in
the mesh. Once again, models can be used to rstly predict
heat generation for a given mesh conguration and then
optimising cut patterns to create more even heating in areas
where overheating may occur [48]. Along similar lines,
mesh susceptors with solid foil edges, i.e. edges with zero
mesh opening, can also work to reduce the eect of edge
eect. In this way, wherever the current density is higher,
the resistance is lower and therefore the temperature can
be reduced [52].

3.4.1. Proximity eect and its derivatives

When a single conductive wire is considered to carry an
alternating current the current distributes itself equally
over the surface. When a second conductive wire is placed
in the vicinity of the rst the electric eld of the two currents inuence each other and the eld distribution
becomes asymmetrical. A change is therefore generated
on the associated magnetic eld. In the case of opposite
current directions the magnetic ux lines are concentrated
in between the wires as a result of a higher current density.
On the opposite sides, the magnetic eld strength is less
strong than in the single wire condition. In the case of
two identical current directions the magnetic ux lines
are driven out of the center between the two wires and
the magnetic eld becomes more stretched as can be seen
in Fig. 8. The ring eect due to ring-shaped coils is one
of the more known examples of the proximity eect. The
magnetic ux density inside the coil is higher than the
expected magnetic ux density because of interactions of
the magnetic eld between sections along the ring [17].
For induction heating application this means that the most
ecient heating occurs inside the induction coil.
The proximity eect also occurs between the current in
the induction coil and the induced eddy currents in the
workpiece. A large part of the current in the coil is forced
to ow along the surface that is closest to the workpiece.
The induced current in the workpiece is always the mirror
image of the coil geometry, thus the same shape, but owing in an opposite direction. This is a favourable eect,
because the currents are drawn to each other. To enhance
the proximity eect between the induction coil and the
workpiece a C-shaped ux concentrator can be placed over
the top of the inductor [17]. A ux concentrator is a

3.4. Additional heating eects

The magnetic eld for induction heating applications
eld is created by an induction coil which can be of almost
any shape to t the application. The more complex the
shape of the coil, the more instances where the magnetic
eld of dierent parts of the coil interact. These eects will

Fig. 8. Inuence of current direction on magnetic eld lines. (a) Single

wire, (b) same current directions and (c) opposite current directions.

1646

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

magnetically conductive material that is able to provide an

easier path for the magnetic ux to travel and conduct the
magnetic elds more eciently and eectively than air [17].
Three groups of materials may be used for ux concentrators [53]; laminations of silicon steel, ferrites and magnetodielectric materials, which are made from magnetic
particles dispersed in an electric insulator. Flux concentrators can direct, control, and focus the magnetic elds into a
specic area of the work coil while keeping it away from
areas that do not need heat. The result is that almost all
the current is drawn towards the open end of the concentrator and the coil area closest to the workpiece. The eciency of the coil is increased [11] and localised heating
can be enforced. Fig. 9 describes diagrammatically this
eect where the darker shaded areas are regions of higher
current intensity.
3.4.2. Skin eect
When a direct current ows through a conductive material the current distribution over a cross-sectional area of
this conductive material is uniform. When an alternating
current is applied to the same conductive element the distribution becomes non-uniform. The induced current tends to
ow outwards at the surface of the material rather than
penetrate the cross section with the same intensity. This
eect is called the skin eect [17]. The result of the skin
eect is that most of the heat is generated in a specic
region on the surface. To have some predictive values of
the skin eect, the reference depth is used and dened as
the depth in which the eddy current density has decreased
by 1/e, or 37% [54]. The reference depth depends on material properties such as electrical resistivity, q, and magnetic
permeability, lr, of the workpiece, and the eld frequency,
f, which is the same frequency as the magnetic eld
frequency of the coil [55].
r
q
d
4
plr f
As can be seen from Eq. (4) a higher frequency leads to a
smaller reference depth and thus a more shallow skin eect.
Also temperature eects need to be taken into account because the magnetic permeability and electrical resistivity

Fig. 10. Variables aecting penetration depth [56].

are both a function of temperature. Fig. 10 shows the eect

of the variables represented in Eq. 4 on penetration depth.
It is possible to divide electromagnetically thick and thin
bodies with regard to workpiece materials. The rst is the
type of body from which the penetration depth is less than
the bodys thickness, while the second is the type of body
where the reference depth is greater than the bodys thickness. In this type of body there is no inuence of the frequency. For induction heating applications it is generally
favourable to keep the body electromagnetically thin to
create a heat zone throughout the total thickness of the
material for good consolidation of the composite part
[23], whereas for welding applications, it can be more desirable simply to heat until the interface [54]. The reference
depth can also be restricted to the surface in highly conductive materials through cancellation of the coils magnetic
eld in deeper regions of the workpiece.
4. Induction heating parameters
4.1. Frequency
The current frequency is a fundamental parameter, since
it is due to the alternating magnetic eld that eddy currents
are induced in the laminate. As already described in Section
3, the frequency also has an eect on the reference depth;
the higher the frequency, the lower the reference depth.
However, Rudolf et al. [24] conrmed through experimentation that the time to heat the composite laminate to the
desired temperature decreases quadratically with increasing
frequency. Thus for a greater generation of energy within
the laminate to be produced, a higher frequency is desired.
Consequently this also leads to a more shallow reference
depth and these two conditions need to be balanced.
4.2. Power

Fig. 9. Magnetic ux concentrator [11].

The power input is one of the most important parameters of the process because the amount of heat generated
in a specic region of the material is proportional to the
power generated in that same region. The source and the

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

workpiece are therefore heavily coupled and the generated

power is dened by [24]
2

2pf lr H IA
5
R
where H(I) is the magnetic eld intensity, which is dependent on the current of the equipment, and A the cross-sectional area of the conductive loop in the workpiece. The
amount of heat generated in the workpiece is also proportional to the frequency squared. This means that when the
magnetic eld intensity drops in distance from the coil to
the workpiece, the drop in generated power can be compensated by a rise in frequency. Fig. 11 displays the dependence of heating time with input power and coil/workpiece
separation.
From a processing point of view, the starting point of
the energy needed to heat an ideally insulated conductive
workpiece of mass mw, can be the required temperature
rise, DT:

E P w t mw cDT

where c is the specic heat of the workpiece. However, due

to eciency losses between the coil and the workpiece the
total power needed to be provided by the power source is
higher during the time of heating.
The power inuences the heating time in general. For
welding applications to be valuable, short processing times,
thus heating times, are needed. However, as will be
explained, this must be oset with the quality of the weld
and hence a compromise must be met. When designing
the total system the heat time can be the starting point
for calculating the required power, because the other
parameters such as the resistivity and specic heat are
related to the material and therefore vary within vast
boundaries.

1647

4.3. Pressure
Appropriate pressure application is important for high
quality consolidation because it allows for good intimate
contact. However, Rudolf et al. [26] found that there is a
practical limit to the pressure that can be applied. The continuous welding of carbon bre-reinforced thermoplastics
was investigated and found that a higher pressure resulted
in a lower quality of weld. This was attributed to increased
squeeze-out of matrix at the weld and a compromise must
be met between adequate intimate contact and polymer
squeeze-out. Poor pressure application can result in the
following faults.
4.3.1. Voids
The appearance of voids have a close relationship with
the deconsolidation of the matrix material and there are
a number of reasons that are the cause. The release of elastic energy as bre bundles deform under pressure and heat,
expansion of entrapped gas bubbles, collapsing of air pockets, inserts and thermal stresses due to the removal of pressure before cooling to below the required temperature, all
contribute to the production of voids [57]. For the entrapment of air bubbles, the surface roughness is an important
parameter. To prevent voids it is important to strive for a
high surface smoothness and apply a high weld pressure to
suppress the occurrence of voids [27]. The high pressure
constraint can cause a contradiction with the low pressure
to avoid folds and ashes, described later. A further consequence of the creation of voids is delamination. Most of the
time delamination is a result of extreme deconsolidation. In
this case relatively large air pockets appear in the matrix
material that will separate one layer from the other in the
laminate and thus destroy the interaction between the
layers.

Fig. 11. Inuence of power with heating time [24].

1648

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

4.3.2. Cracks
Rudolf et al. [26] reported cracks due to the high degree
of crystallization of the semi-nished product, which
resulted in strong shrinkage of the matrix material. These
cracks occurred due to thermal stresses due to the thermal
expansion mismatch between the matrix and bres. Crack
prevention is possible through the control of pressure
through the cooling phase. The matrix is thus prevented
from expanding and shrinking. The pressure can then be
removed when a uniform temperature prole is reached
and the temperature is well below the melt or glass transition temperature.
4.3.3. Folds and ashes
These faults are due to misalignment and poor application of pressure. When the pressure is unequally divided
over the weld zone it can force matrix material out the weld
at the sides, causing ashes, or it can result in the folding of
the laminate at the edge of the pressure device. The folding
can cause bres to buckle. To prevent these ashes it is
important not to apply a very high welding pressure. Very
high pressure forces the matrix out of the welding zone [26].
To prevent the folds it is important to have a very smooth
under surface, because when applying pressure an unequal
plate can force a fold into the laminate.
4.4. Residence time
The residence time is the time of exposure of the workpiece to the induction eld and has an inuence on the
movement of polymer molecules across the weld interface.
In general, allowing for a longer residence time results in a
higher quality of weld because more polymer chains are
given time to move across the weld interface [29,46]. If
welding parameters frequency, power and pressure are considered to be constant, three welding regimes can be established relating to the residence time and resulting
temperature; non-wetting, uniform fusion and degradation
and are shown in Fig. 12. Insucient weld times, and therefore low temperatures, result in insucient wetting and
weld strength is low. A period of uniform fusion follows,

Fig. 12. Dierent welding regimes of thermoplastic composites [29].

where the quality of the weld improves with residence time

and temperature as Tg is reached and exceeded. This
becomes the optimum time and temperature range for
welding, and hence the optimum process window. Finally,
if temperature within the workpiece exceeds the maximum
welding temperature of the polymer, thermal degradation
of the polymer and a consequent degradation of weld
strength results.
5. Modelling induction welding
Due to the complex structure of the composite materials, the modelling eort was mainly focused on the heat
generation mechanisms in the carbon bre-reinforced composite materials. Several concepts that covered virtually all
possible heat generation mechanisms were proposed,
discussed and investigated.
Miller et al. [23,25] proposed Joule heating as a dominant heating mechanism in preconsolidated carbon brereinforced thermoplastic materials. They also introduced
and proved the existence of the global current loop
(between the adjacent plies) as the major path of the
induced current in the laminate. A theoretical model was
developed that assumed near perfect electrical contact
between crossed plies. The conclusions were that Joule
heating is the primary heat generation mechanism and that
electrical ply to ply transfer is either real, by arcing, or virtual, by displacement currents (as in a capacitor). The
model is limited to preconsolidated laminates and is not
applicable for cases when good electrical contact between
the ply bres cannot be provided.
Fink et al. [30,38,58,42] proposed an alternative concept
that indicates dielectric heating in the matrix region at the
ply junctions as a dominant heat generation mechanism in
laminates in which direct contact between the bres from
adjacent plies does not exist. Their major proposition states
that the primary heating mechanism in multi-directional,
thermoplastic composites subjected to a transverse magnetic eld alternating at less than 200 kHz is dielectric
losses in the polymer region between bres in adjacent
plies, which make up a conductive path of signicant
dimension [38]. The theory was developed using a simple
idealized conductive loop, illustrated in Fig. 13, that con-

Fig. 13. An idealized conductive loop in a [0, 90] cross-ply [38].

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

sists of two parallel carbon bres in one plane and two

more in an adjacent plane. A lengthy theoretical analysis
of the dielectric heating produced an equation that provided a comparison between the local contribution of the
Joule loss in the bre, Pi, and the dielectric loss in the junction, Wj. The comparison is given by taking the ratio of the
two sources of heat [38]:
Wj
3:35  1013 h
Pi

Eq. 7 clearly shows that the thickness of the junctions

should be of order 1014 [m] for the Joule losses to be comparable to the losses in the polymer (an electrical breakdown would be expected at that thickness), which
supported the proposed theory that power loss through
dielectric heating in the polymer region of cross-over junctions is the dominating heat generation mechanism [38].
Several theoretical models for unconsolidated laminates
were developed based on the concept of dielectric heating
[30,38,58,42]. An extensive experimental study was performed in order to verify the model data. The reported results agreed well with the model predictions [30] and
although in some cases the results could not provide a direct proof of the proposed model [42], they strongly supported the concept of dielectric heating. The Joule
heating in the bres was excluded by observing the heating
patterns, which showed substantial heating only at the
points of ply overlap. At relatively smaller thicknesses of
the polymer region Joule heating through brebre contact at the junctions was allowed for, but only as a possible
contributing mechanism. Experiments with dierent resin
materials interlayer showed signicant dierence in the
heating characteristics [42], discounting by that the theory
of virtual charge displacement and further supporting the
proposal of dielectric losses in the polymer. Finally, dielectric breakdown was dismissed by performing cycle tests
that showed no change in the heating rate between the rst
and later cycles [38,42].

1649

Yarlagadda et al. [39] considered contact heating at

brebre junctions as an important heating mechanism
in case of unconsolidated prepreg stacks. Their study
showed that contact heating is indeed major heating mechanism in these cases. This statement was supported by a
comparative experiment performed on an unidirectional
loop connected to a 30 V dc power source and a loop
heated by an induction coil, both producing the same heating rates and temperature proles. Several numerical models were developed based on this concept [39,40,59]. The
rst one, a conductive loop network model [39] formulated
for two-ply heating predictions accounted only for Joule
heating in the bres and junction heating, so a choice
between dielectric and contact heating mechanisms has to
be made prior to the computation. Modelling the newly
proposed concept of contact heating produced good, satisfactory qualitative results. Later on, a couple of experimental methodologies were developed for estimating the
through-thickness contact resistance of the bre materials
[60,40] that were used as an input to induction heating
models. The next step was developing a unied modelling
approach in order to determine the dominating heat generation mechanisms for any type of composite system (dierent bre and matrix material and laminate congurations),
as well as for dierent processing parameters [40]. This was
provided by using a representative electrical circuit to
describe the heating mechanisms and non-dimensional
parameters for their comparison. The model accounted
for all three possible heat generation mechanisms, as it is
schematically shown in Fig. 14. A comprehensive parametric study was performed that resulted in a design map that
can determine the expected dominant heating mechanism,
given the composite system. The results further showed
that for carbon bre composite systems junction heating
eects mostly dominate compared to Joule bre heating,
although it was noted that the bre architecture plays signicant role in determining the dominant mechanism
(woven fabrics may in some cases show dominant bre

Fig. 14. Schematic of the bre heating and junction heating at each conductive loop of the cross-plied laminate [60].

1650

T.J. Ahmed et al. / Composites: Part A 37 (2006) 16381651

heating, due to low contact resistance). The results also

supported the notion of contact heating as dominant junction heating mechanism. Finally, a combined numerical
model was presented [59] to predict in-plane heating generation for unconsolidated prepreg stacks. The model
accounted for all three heating mechanisms combined,
the main process and material parameters and the stack
angle. The models capability to predict the bre or junction heating dominance was veried by its comparison with
Fink and Miller models. The comparison with Fink model
showed excellent agreement, except at the edges of the
domain (where it was expected for the new model to provide more accurate predictions). The comparison with
Miller model also showed excellent agreement in anisotropic heating patterns. An experimental validation was
performed for by comparing three dierent stacking cases
with the model results. Again there was an excellent agreement in overall heating patterns and distances between the
heated spots, except for very low stack angles, when model
results deviated signicantly from the experimental ones.
Rudolf et al. performed an extensive experimental study
on induction heating of carbon bre-reinforced thermoplastics [24], focused on the inuence of the major process
parameters on the heat rate and heat distribution in the
material. Several dierent matrix materials and fabric types
were investigated, as well as dierent dierent laminate
congurations, including a single fabric layer. From the
heat generation viewpoint it was concluded that Joule heating in the bres is the most likely dominate heat generation
mechanism, which supported the theory of Miller et al.
[23,25] and excluded the dielectric heating theory of Fink
et al. [38]. Based on this ndings, a transient thermal model
of the continuous induction welding process was developed
[27] in order to ease and improve the optimisation of the
welding process parameters. The induction heating phase
of the process was modelled with a nite element model
that accounted for the anisotropy of the composite material and for the temperature dependency of the material
properties and boundary conditions. Since the initial twodimensional models did not produce satisfactory results,
a full three-dimensional model of a single lap joint was
built. The inuence of the edge eect was eliminated by
choosing suitable dimensions and the laminate material
was assumed to be monolithic and orthotropic. The comparison between the model predictions and experimental
measurements showed a good agreement of the in-plane
temperature distribution and transient temperature proles. The cooling phase was modelled using relatively simple nite dierence model based on the Fouriers law of
thermal conduction. The model used dierent thermal conductivity coecients in the main directions, but the used
material properties were constant, averaged on the predicted temperature range. The model produced results with
accuracy within the 10% of the measured temperatures,
which was considered sucient for predicting the optimum
process parameters.

6. Conclusion
Induction heating has already proven to be a worthwhile
technology for metals. The past two decades have seen the
emergence of induction heating as a suitable and eective
technology for heating of thermoplastic composites. The
simplicity of the physical process and the extensive research
into numerical modelling of the heating process has
allowed for the development of the induction welding process. A number of studies that have been performed clearly
showed the potential of induction welding for application
in thermoplastic composite structures. Produced lap shear
strengths were comparable, if not better, than oven-cured,
bolted or resistance welded joints.
In spite the considerable research eort, the induction
process has not seen signicant shift in application in
industry from current bonding and welding methods.
Apart from the inherent inertness of the industry when
introducing new technologies is concerned, there are several issues, most notably the edge eect and the local heating eect, that prevent embracing induction welding on a
large scale. Addressing these and other important issues
remains as an incentive for further development of the
induction welding method.
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