TY - JOUR
T1 - Multiple ply preforming of non-crimp fabrics with distributed magnetic clamping
AU - Jagpal, Rajan
AU - Evangelou, Vangelis
AU - Butler, Richard
AU - Loukaides, Evros
N1 - Funding Information:
Gratitude is extended to EPSRC and UKRI for supporting the work carried out under the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) project (EP/R512424/1). Rajan Jagpal's PhD studentship is 50% funded by GKN Aerospace. The authors would like to particularly thank GKN Aerospace for providing industrial context and guidance. Prof. Richard Butler also holds the Royal Academy of Engineering - GKN Aerospace Research Chair.
PY - 2022/4/30
Y1 - 2022/4/30
N2 - A major barrier to high-rate manufacture of non-crimp fabric (NCF) preforms is the relatively low volume of research evaluating multiple ply forming strategies. This study presents an extension to the distributed magnetic clamping (DIMAC) method towards establishing flexible process control measures for multiple ply forming. A measure of wrinkling was devised to allow comparison across different stack thicknesses and the distributions of wrinkles were shown to correlate with process parameters in an experimental parametric study. Further, ply-bending mechanics were shown to have a dominant effect on the draw-in of compression folds, particularly when increasing the number of equivalent biaxial plies. However, by deploying targeted distributed clamps, three-ply, single-stroke strategies over a complex positive curvature geometry became viable. DIMAC is shown to facilitate the local adjustment of boundary conditions whilst offering flexibility in improving component quality.
AB - A major barrier to high-rate manufacture of non-crimp fabric (NCF) preforms is the relatively low volume of research evaluating multiple ply forming strategies. This study presents an extension to the distributed magnetic clamping (DIMAC) method towards establishing flexible process control measures for multiple ply forming. A measure of wrinkling was devised to allow comparison across different stack thicknesses and the distributions of wrinkles were shown to correlate with process parameters in an experimental parametric study. Further, ply-bending mechanics were shown to have a dominant effect on the draw-in of compression folds, particularly when increasing the number of equivalent biaxial plies. However, by deploying targeted distributed clamps, three-ply, single-stroke strategies over a complex positive curvature geometry became viable. DIMAC is shown to facilitate the local adjustment of boundary conditions whilst offering flexibility in improving component quality.
KW - Fabrics/textiles
KW - Laminate mechanics
KW - Preforming
KW - Resin transfer moulding (RTM)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125457851&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.coco.2022.101107
DO - 10.1016/j.coco.2022.101107
M3 - Article
VL - 31
JO - Composites Communications
JF - Composites Communications
SN - 2452-2139
M1 - 101107
ER -