A design algorithm to model fibre paths for manufacturing of structurally optimised composite laminates

TLDR: This work develops a design for manufacturing (DFM) tool for the introduction in design of the manufacturing requirements and limitations derived from the fibre placement technology, which enables the automatic generation of continuous fibre paths for manufacturing.

About: This article is published in Composite Structures.The article was published on 2018-11-15 and is currently open access. It has received 14 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Design for manufacturability & Composite laminates.

Figures

Figure 9. Flat square plate with a hole: reference paths optimised for structures and paths optimised for manufacturing with gap and overlap analysis for each ply (green: gap and blue: overlap)

Figure 2. Curve smoothing approach to comply with minimum turning radius constraint

Table 2. Analysis of results of ply 4 of flat square plate with a hole showing angle deviations, gaps and overlaps, and tow-drops that would be needed to remove the overlaps

Table 3. Analysis of results for the design of reference (Ref) and manufacturing (Mfg) fibre paths of windshield front fairing Case study Windshield front fairing Ply orientation (deg) 0 45 90 Description Ref.

Figure 1. Approach for fibre path modelling for manufacturing, including for each step (boxes): input and output variables (left and right side of boxes), conditions and constraints applicable (in bold at top side of boxes), and enablers and algorithms used (in italic at bottom side of boxes).

Figure 3. (a) Case study used and representation of modelled curves; (b) graph of the effect of refinement of interpolation on computation time; (c) graph of the effect of refinement on average angle deviation