Laminate design for optimised in-plane performance and ease of manufacture

作者：Nielsen M W D; Johnson K J; Rhead A T; Butler R^*

来源：Composite Structures, 2017, 177: 119-128.

DOI：10.1016/j.compstruct.2017.06.061

New structural efficiency diagrams are presented, showing that current design practice incurs additional mass because: (i) laminate balancing axes are not aligned with principal loading axes and (ii) principal loading ratios vary within a part with fixed ply percentages. These diagrams present significant opportunities for fibre steering and laminate tailoring in aerospace design. Moreover, it is shown that standard ply angles (0 degrees, +45 degrees, 45 degrees and 90 degrees) have incompatible modes of deformation between adjacent sublaminates in their uncured state (during forming); such modes can promote the occurrence of wrinkling defects during manufacture which reduce part strength significantly. A new formulation is presented to enable any standard angle laminate to be replaced by a laminate consisting of two non-standard angles, +/-phi and +/-Psi, with equivalent in-plane stiffness. Non-standard ply angles are shown to promote compatible modes of deformation and offer significant potential, in terms of formability, thereby increasing production rates and reducing the need for so-called manufacturing knockdown factors.

• 出版日期2017-10-1