Design and manufacture of a Type V composite pressure vessel using automated fibre placement

Abstract

Automated fibre placement (AFP) can improve composite pressure vessel design by enabling selective reinforcement and allowing a wider range of fibre orientations than the traditional filament winding process. This paper presents the development of an AFP Type V composite pressure vessel with a design working pressure of 4.22 MPa made using a novel collapsible mandrel. The design process is presented along with a thickness control strategy for the AFP parts using ply drops. The tank was manufactured, and the thickness was validated using 3D scanning. The masses of the AFP parts were also measured to within 2.23% of the predicted values. The finished tank was hydrostatically pressure tested to understand the leakage behaviour. Defects and difficulties encountered in this prototype are discussed and opportunities for future work and improvements have been identified.