Computational Tool Development for Tailored Fiber Placement (TFP) Design Optimization

Abstract

Tailored fiber placement (TFP) is a composite preform manufacturing technique that automatically lays down fiber bundles at specified locations, with the ability to provide out-of-plane reinforcement via localized stitching. This process promises to improve mechanical performance and reduce component weight by laying down fiber reinforcements in a strategic and geometrically optimized manner. Furthermore, TFP can be used to produce near net-shape components in an automated fashion using commercially available machinery. However, the degree of property improvement and weight reduction directly depends on the location of fiber bundles and reinforcing stitching. Currently this design process is iterated upon by costly and time-intensive trial-and-error experimentation. The present work seeks to streamline the design process by developing a suite of agile computational tools that can accurately model the mechanical performance of TFP preforms. This work presents the methodology for simulating the impact of reinforcing stitching on the performance of a component. A special technique is devised to create reinforced inter-ply interfaces into progressive damage analyses performed by finite element method (FEM) package BSAM to understand this impact and optimize the reinforcement for maximum performance. Two distinct TFP components were constructed utilizing T700S 12k fiber tow and infused using the epoxy resin RTM6. These components were then constructed and tested for comparison to the model.