Influence of Laminate Parameter and Draping Variations on Locally Reinforced Composite Parts

Abstract

Fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) are a modern high-tech material and offer enormous lightweight potential. However, the material properties of composite materials lead to new challenges in the design and manufacturing process. Methods considering the anisotropic material behaviour during the design phase have been developed recently, leading to an optimised nominal laminate layout that often consists of a base laminate with local reinforcement patches. Yet, the laminate parameters suffer from variations during the manufacturing process. Additionally, deviations from the nominal fibre angles occur when draping the laminate of curved parts and interact with the occurring parameter variations. So far, the mentioned variations are insufficiently considered in combination with draping and reinforcement patches in the design of FRP parts. In order to overcome this shortcoming, a novel simulation approach for the draping of reinforcement patches is presented, which allows a more accurate prediction of fibre angles after adding random variations and draping deviations. The novelty of this approach lies in the consideration of variations in the draping simulation and their influence on the resulting draping deviations. It also enables further investigations, such as the influence on the draping deviations if the draping starting point is not the centre of the patch. The influence of different parameter variations on the component quality is then investigated by performing structural analyses of the part using the results from the draping simulation.