Structural aerospace composite parts are generally cured in an autoclave. To achieve a homogeneous curing, computational fluid dynamics simulations have been increasingly used in thermal optimization. However, a transient computational fluid dynamics simulation of autoclave processing is resource intensive. This article outlines the concept of a quasi-transient coupling strategy to deal with the conjugate heat transfer problem inside an autoclave. In this approach, a computational fluid dynamics model is coupled with a finite element method (FEM) model through incorporating an empirical-based analytic equation, which describes the dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on pressure and temperature, into the computational fluid dynamics computations. This approach bridges the temporal disparities between the fluid and the solid, thus minimizing the global computing time. To validate this method, two simulation cases have been studied. In both cases, two different coupling computations are compared, namely a full-transient simulation as the reference computation and the introduced quasi-transient simulation. First, the quasi-transient coupling approach is implemented by performing the transient heat transfer analysis on a flat plate. The results indicate that this approach can predict accurate transient temperature fields, and the computational effort is reduced by up to 87%. Subsequently, this method is used in a real autoclave and validated by known experimental data. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results, with a mean temperature error lower than 1.9°C. This indicates the capability and efficiency of this approach in solving a conjugate heat transfer problem for autoclave processing.

航空航天复合结构件通常在高压釜中固化。为了实现均匀固化，在热优化中越来越多地使用计算流体动力学模拟。但是，高压釜处理的瞬态计算流体动力学模拟是资源密集型的。本文概述了准瞬态耦合策略的概念，以解决高压釜内的共轭传热问题。在这种方法中，通过将基于经验的分析方程式（该方程式描述了传热系数对压力和温度的依赖性）纳入计算流体力学计算中，从而将计算流体力学模型与有限元方法（FEM）模型耦合。这种方法弥合了流体和固体之间的时间差异，从而最大程度地减少了全局计算时间。为了验证该方法，研究了两个仿真案例。在这两种情况下，都比较了两种不同的耦合计算，即作为参考计算的全瞬态仿真和引入的准瞬态仿真。首先，通过在平板上执行瞬态热传递分析来实现准瞬态耦合方法。结果表明，该方法可以预测准确的瞬态温度场，并且计算量最多减少了87％。随后，该方法用于实际的高压釜中，并通过已知的实验数据进行了验证。仿真结果与实验结果吻合良好，平均温度误差低于1.9°C。