Surrogate Model Based Analysis of Inter-Ply Shear Stress in Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composite Sheet Press Forming

Abera Tullu,Ho-Yon Hwang,Bong-Sul Lee

doi:10.3390/app10165499

Abstract

The anisotropic nature of fiber reinforced composite materials causes great challenges in predicting the inter-ply shear stress during forming. The complexity of understanding the functional dependency of inter-ply shear stress on multiple forming parameters such as blank temperature, pressure load, inter-ply slippage, and the relative fiber orientation angle of adjacent plies further limits the effort to produce a defect-free composite structure. Performing real experiments for various combinations of the mentioned parameters is both time consuming and economically costly. To overcome these difficulties, a surrogate-based analysis of inter-ply shear stress is proposed in this study. Based on the ranges of the forming parameters, computer experiments were performed. Using these experimental data, a radial basis function (RBF) based surrogate model that mimics inter-ply shear stress during composite press forming was developed. The fidelity of this model was checked with test data and found to be over 98% efficient.

Highlights

As a result of their superiority in stiffness, impact and corrosion resistivities, as well as being lightweight, reinforced thermoplastic composite materials gain profound advantages over metallic alloys especially in aerospace industries
This study aims to develop a surrogate model or predictor that approximates the functional form of inter-ply shear stress on four parameters: relative fiber orientation angle of adjacent plies, forming temperature, pressure load, and ply pullout speed
The random distribution of residual about the horizontal line shows that the surrogate model linearly fits the inter-ply shear stress

Summary

Introduction

As a result of their superiority in stiffness, impact and corrosion resistivities, as well as being lightweight, reinforced thermoplastic composite materials gain profound advantages over metallic alloys especially in aerospace industries. Unlike their metallic counterparts, reinforced composite materials can be tailored to meet a desired structural performance taking fiber orientation or ply stacking sequences as design variables. Marco Montemurro et al [1] discussed this possibility with the least-weight design objective constrained to mechanical, geometrical, and technological requirements. These privileges come with defect-free forming challenges. Panding et al [7]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion