The heat generated within thermoplastic carbon composite laminates during induction welding can be attributed to one, or a combination of the three heating mechanisms discussed in the literature: (i) Joule heating of fibers; (ii) Joule and/or dielectric heating of polymer; and (iii) fiber-to-fiber contact resistance heating. The answer to the question, which of the three heating mechanisms is most dominant, remains open. This research aims to provide an answer to this question through finite element simulations using both an in-house developed numerical Whitney-elements based toolbox for induction welding simulations (WelDone), and the commercially available software, ANSYS Maxwell. The simulations are done at two levels; first, using WelDone laminate-level simulations are performed to see in which direction: fiber-, transverse to the fiber-, or thickness direction, most of the heat was generated; and second, ANSYS Maxwell was used to simulate the solid loss on a microscopic, inside fiber and resin, level with and without the presence of resin. In the latter series of simulations, contact between fibers in different layers was explicitly modeled. The numerical simulations revealed that on the laminate-level most heat is generated in the fiber- and thickness directions. The former coincides with Joule heating of fibers, while the latter can be attributed to either Joule heating of polymer and fiber-to-fiber contact resistance heating, or both. The fiber level simulations, however, revealed that both fiber-to-fiber contact and no-fiber-to-fiber contact conditions have a significantly small effect on the solid loss compared to presence of resin. Based on the latter, the heat generation in the thickness direction was attributed to a second heating mechanism; Joule heating of polymer. It must be noted that the dielectric heating of polymer was ignored due to the relatively low operating frequency at which induction welding takes place.

热塑性碳复合材料层压板在感应焊接过程中产生的热量可归因于文献中讨论的一种或三种加热机制的组合：（i）纤维的焦耳加热；（ii）焦耳和/或聚合物的介电加热；（iii）纤维间接触电阻加热。这个问题的答案仍然是待解决的，这三个加热机制中哪一个是最主要的。这项研究旨在通过有限元模拟，使用内部开发的用于感应焊接模拟的基于Whitney元素的数值工具箱（WelDone）以及市售软件ANSYS Maxwell，为这个问题提供答案。仿真分两个级别进行：首先，使用WelDone进行层级仿真，以查看朝哪个方向：纤维方向，横向于纤维方向，或厚度方向，大部分热量产生；其次，ANSYS Maxwell被用来模拟在有或没有树脂存在的情况下，在微观内部纤维和树脂水平上的固体损失。在后面的一系列模拟中，对不同层中的纤维之间的接触进行了显式建模。数值模拟表明，在层压板级别上，大部分热量是在纤维和厚度方向上产生的。前者与纤维的焦耳加热相吻合，而后者可以归因于聚合物的焦耳加热和纤维与纤维之间的接触电阻加热，或两者兼而有之。然而，纤维水平的模拟显示，与树脂的存在相比，纤维与纤维之间的接触和无纤维与纤维之间的接触条件对固体损失的影响都非常小。基于后者，厚度方向上的热量产生是由于第二加热机制。聚合物的焦耳加热。必须指出的是，由于感应焊接发生的工作频率相对较低，聚合物的介电加热被忽略了。