Abstract
Dynamic loadings induced on a tufting needle during the tufting of dry carbon fibre preform via a commercial robot-controlled tufting head were investigated in situ and in real-time using optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors bonded to the needle shaft. The sensors were configured such that the axial strain and bending moments experienced by the needle could be measured. A study of the influence of thread and thread type on the strain imparted to the needle revealed axial strain profiles which had equivalent trends but different magnitudes. The mean of the maximum axial compression strains measured during the tufting of a 4-ply quasi-isotropic carbon fibre dry preform were − 499 ± 79 με, − 463 ± 51 με and − 431 ± 59 με for a needle without thread, with metal wire and with Kevlar® thread, respectively. The needle similarly exhibited bending moments of different magnitude when the different needle feeding configurations were used.
Highlights
Stressed structural components for applications in aerospace, automotive, wind energy, marine and civil engineering fields are being manufactured increasingly from polymer matrix/continuous fibre reinforced composites
This paper presents a technique that monitors on-line and in real-time the multi-component strain experienced by the needle during tufting, measured by multiplexed surfacemounted optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors
Four wavelength-multiplexed FBG sensors have been used to measure the axial strain and two bending moments experienced by the needle during the tufting process
Summary
National Composites Centre, Bristol BS16 7FS, UK. 4 Present address: Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK. Layered pre-pregs can be consolidated and cured (i.e. solidification of the resin by the application of heat) directly after lay-up, while dry preforms must first be infused with a suitable liquid resin before cure In both cases, the lay-up procedure produces composites with filaments lying in-plane only, and no fibres arranged along the out-of-plane (or Z -) direction. Several techniques have been developed for inserting Z -reinforcing elements (or ‘microfasteners’) through the thickness of the preform, thereby creating threedimensional (3D) fibre architectures; examples are tufting, stitching or Z -pinning [1,2,3,4,5]. This paper presents a technique that monitors on-line and in real-time the multi-component strain experienced by the needle during tufting, measured by multiplexed surfacemounted optical fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. One advantage of employing multiplexed sensors is that their signals can be used to determine multiple components of strain [11, 13]
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