The influence of consolidation force on the performance of AFP manufactured laminates

With the increasing use of carbon/glass fibre reinforced polymer composites for large components like wing skins, fuselages and fuel tanks in aircrafts and next generation of spacecraft, utilization of advanced automated manufacturing is critical for mass production. In-situ consolidation in automated fibre placement (AFP) technology through merging several manufacturing stages like cutting, curing and consolidation has opened up a wider range of applications as well as new markets for composite materials in several sectors including aerospace and automobile in large scale. Nevertheless, the quality and integrity of AFP manufactured composites is heavily dependent on large number of variables and parameters like lay-up speed, curing/ melting temperature and consolidation force. In order to establish and understand a correlation between the key parameters in AFP and the mechanical properties, several parametric experiments were performed. This is done through manufacturing uni-directional carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates and identifying some of their main mechanical properties at different location along the length of samples. It was found that, the strength of laminates at different locations is critically dependent on the effect of those parameters. Disciplines Engineering | Science and Technology Studies Publication Details E. Oromiehie, B. Prusty, P. Compston & G. Rajan, "The influence of consolidation force on the performance of AFP manufactured laminates," in 21st International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM-21), 2017, pp. 1-11. This conference paper is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/eispapers1/1810 21 International Conference on Composite Materials Xi’an, 20-25 August 2017 THE INFLUENCE OF CONSOLIDATION FORCE ON THE PERFORMANCE OF AFP MANUFACTURED LAMINATES Ebrahim Oromiehie 1 , B. Gangadhara Prusty 1 , Paul Compston 2 , Ginu Rajan 3 1 School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, UNSW Australia, NSW 2052, Australia, g.prusty@unsw.edu.au 2 Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia, Paul.Compston@anu.edu.au 3 School of Electrical, Computer Telecommunication, Engineering University of Wollongong, Australia NSW 2522, ginu@uow.edu.au

[1]  Sanjay Mazumdar,et al.  Composites Manufacturing: Materials, Product, and Process Engineering , 2001, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[2]  Akshya Swain,et al.  Machine learning based process monitoring and characterisation of automated composites , 2017 .

[3]  Damiano Pasini,et al.  Experimental study of the effect of automated fiber placement induced defects on performance of composite laminates , 2011 .

[4]  Ranga Pitchumani,et al.  Design and Optimization of a Thermoplastic Tow-Placement Process with In-Situ Consolidation , 1997 .

[5]  Paul Compston,et al.  The effect of processing temperature and placement rate on the short beam strength of carbon fibre-PEEK manufactured using a laser tape placement process , 2015 .

[6]  Ginu Rajan,et al.  Characterization of process-induced defects in automated fiber placement manufacturing of composites using fiber Bragg grating sensors , 2018 .

[7]  K. Potter,et al.  The engineering aspects of automated prepreg layup: History, present and future , 2012 .

[8]  G. Ostrander,et al.  Recent Developments in Automated Fiber Placement of Thermoplastic Composites , 2014 .

[9]  Maria Kashtalyan,et al.  Composite Materials: Science and Applications – Second edition D. D. L. Chung Springer-Verlag, Tiergartenstrasse 17, D-69121 Heidelberg, Germany. 2010. 349pp. Illustrated. £117. ISBN 978-1-84882-830-8. , 2011, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[10]  Paul Compston,et al.  Optimisation of compaction force for automated fibre placement , 2014 .

[11]  Ginu Rajan,et al.  In situ process monitoring for automated fibre placement using fibre Bragg grating sensors , 2016 .

[12]  Z. Qureshi,et al.  In situ consolidation of thermoplastic prepreg tape using automated tape placement technology: Potential and possibilities , 2014 .

[13]  Ginu Rajan,et al.  In-situ simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature in automated fiber placement (AFP) using optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors , 2017 .