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Abstract
Although an enabler of high-rate manufacture, automated forming of components from flat laminates can result in fibre wrinkling. For the first time, fibre length is demonstrated to be a key driver of wrinkling defects when forming a C-spar with a central recess, at industrial length scales. Three such spars, of equal in-plane stiffness, were manufactured using Single Diaphragm Forming. Two contained standard ply angles (0°, 90° or ±45°) including 6 m long 0° fibres but had different stacking sequences, one shown to be formable in short spar trials, the other un-formable. A third spar also had a formable sequence but contained non-standard ply angles (angles other than 0°, 90° or ±45°) so that maximum fibre length was less than 0.6 m. Wrinkles occurred in both standard angle spars but did not occur in the non-standard angle case, demonstrating that use of formable, non-standard angle laminates can reduce scrappage of automatically formed aerospace parts, leading to significant time and cost savings in production.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 110646 |
Journal | Composites Part B: Engineering |
Volume | 255 |
Early online date | 23 Feb 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 15 Apr 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) , who fund the ADAPT project (EP/N024354/1), the Programme Grant “Certification for Design – Reshaping the Testing Pyramid” (CerTest, EP/S017038/1) and “Design simulation tools and process improvements for NCF preforming” (EP/P006701/1). Spar manufacture was undertaken at the National Composites Centre (using ADAPT funding) by Graham Clarke, Michael Bryant, Stuart Sykes and Andrew Bruton whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Richard Butler holds the Royal Academy of Engineering/GKN Aerospace Research Chair in Composites Analysis. The contributions of Yang Chen and Chrysoula Aza were supported by the Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation (DETI) programme. The authors are also grateful to Dr Kathryn Rankin and Prof. Ian Sinclair at the University of Southampton for X-Ray CT imaging, and to Steve Thomas at the University of Bath for his assistance with tooling and machining.
Data will be made available on request
Funding
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) , who fund the ADAPT project (EP/N024354/1), the Programme Grant “Certification for Design – Reshaping the Testing Pyramid” (CerTest, EP/S017038/1) and “Design simulation tools and process improvements for NCF preforming” (EP/P006701/1). Spar manufacture was undertaken at the National Composites Centre (using ADAPT funding) by Graham Clarke, Michael Bryant, Stuart Sykes and Andrew Bruton whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Richard Butler holds the Royal Academy of Engineering/GKN Aerospace Research Chair in Composites Analysis. The contributions of Yang Chen and Chrysoula Aza were supported by the Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation (DETI) programme. The authors are also grateful to Dr Kathryn Rankin and Prof. Ian Sinclair at the University of Southampton for X-Ray CT imaging, and to Steve Thomas at the University of Bath for his assistance with tooling and machining. The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:No conflict of interest is present but for absolute transparency GKN Aerospace sponsor Prof. Butler's Research Chair in Composites Analysis and made a small contribution (∼5%) to the funding of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) projects ADAPT (EP/N024354/1) “Certification for Design – Reshaping the Testing Pyramid” (CerTest, EP/S017038/1) and “Design simulation tools and process improvements for NCF preforming” (EP/P006701/1).The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), who fund the ADAPT project (EP/N024354/1), the Programme Grant “Certification for Design – Reshaping the Testing Pyramid” (CerTest, EP/S017038/1) and “Design simulation tools and process improvements for NCF preforming” (EP/P006701/1). Spar manufacture was undertaken at the National Composites Centre (using ADAPT funding) by Graham Clarke, Michael Bryant, Stuart Sykes and Andrew Bruton whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. Richard Butler holds the Royal Academy of Engineering/GKN Aerospace Research Chair in Composites Analysis. The contributions of Yang Chen and Chrysoula Aza were supported by the Digital Engineering Technology and Innovation (DETI) programme. The authors are also grateful to Dr Kathryn Rankin and Prof. Ian Sinclair at the University of Southampton for X-Ray CT imaging, and to Steve Thomas at the University of Bath for his assistance with tooling and machining.
Keywords
- Design for manufacture
- Diaphragm forming
- Length-effect
- Non-standard ply angles
- Wrinkling
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ceramics and Composites
- Mechanics of Materials
- Mechanical Engineering
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Manufacture of long spars: Laminate design, experimental trials and non-destructive evaluation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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DETI - PoC2 - Modelling framework
Chen, Y. (Researcher) & Butler, R. (PI)
1/02/21 → 28/02/22
Project: Central government, health and local authorities
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ADAPT
Butler, R. (PI) & Rhead, A. (CoI)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/10/16 → 31/05/21
Project: Research council