Abstract
A novel low-cost manufacturing process is introduced, referred to as ‘Fabric Steering’. By manipulating biaxial fabrics, curvilinear fibre paths can be created to manufacture variable stiffness panels, similar to those produced using Automated Fibre Placement [1]. With low equipment costs and the capability to steer multiple-layers of fabrics simultaneously, this technique potentially offers faster production rates and lower manufacturing costs compared to Automated Fibre Placement. A computer aided engineering tool, SteerFab [2,3], is used to guide the design and manufacture process by predicting: (a) the optimum 2D fibre paths, (b) the subsequent mechanical behaviour of the resulting variable stiffness panel (including improvements in buckling resistance and strength) and (c) step-by-step manufacturing instructions. Compared to conventional quasi-isotropic straight-fibre laminates, experimental buckling tests show slightly heavier (by 4.6%) steered-fibre laminates achieve improvements of ~9% and ~17% in buckling resistance load and failure load, findings that fit well with numerical predictions.
Highlights
Despite relatively high material and manufacture costs, carbon fibre composites are widely used in the aerospace industry due to their exceptional specific mechanical properties
Researchers have explored the possibility of using Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) to manufacture parts containing curvilinear rather than straight fibre paths, manufacturing so called ‘Variable Stiffness Panels’ (VSP) [1,5,6,7]
According to Refs. [1,5,6,8,9], AFP-manufactured VSP can achieve 10% improvements in buckling load and 25% increases in failure load when compared to straight-fibre laminates of the same weight
Summary
Despite relatively high material and manufacture costs, carbon fibre composites are widely used in the aerospace industry due to their exceptional specific mechanical properties. Continuous Tow Shearing ma nipulates prepreg tapes or dry fibre tows to create defect-free curvilinear fibre paths [14,15,16] While these fibre placement technologies demon strate an extremely promising capability to manufacture highly opti mised steered-fibre structures, they are limited to deposit tapes or tows with finite widths that are considerably smaller than the size of the part to be produced, and high capital costs for the sophisticated robots can lead to high part costs. The process allows large multilayer sheets to be formed quickly in a single step into complex shapes [17] The importance of this process has led to a significant body of research dedicated to understand engineering fabric and advanced composite prepreg forming mechanics, including predictions of fibre. Comprehensive finite-element simula tions [28] may be used to model the fabric steering process in future
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
