Multi-Scale Energy Analysis Method during Automated Fibre Placement Process

Abstract

Automated fibre placement (AFP) is an advanced technology for composite lay-up. However, analysis on mechanical properties used by experiments or macroscopic theories during AFP process suffers from some restrictions, because multi-scale effect of laying tows and their manufacturing defects could not be considered. This contribution proposes a novel anti-sequential multi-scale analysis method based on concurrent/sequential multi-scale analysis method. In order to establish a coupling mechanism among different scales, multi-scale energy transfer model is presented and emphatically analysed through composite mechanics and classical mechanics. Furthermore, taking a Bisphenol A epoxy matrix prepreg tow as an example, an application is employed to verify the feasibility of the method and model. Finally, application field for processing optimization is introduced and prospected.