DESIGN OF CURVED FIBER PATHS FOR COMPOSITE LAMINATES

• Main Authors: THOMAS A GRANDINE, PATTERSON MATTHEW STEVEN, MOSTAFA RASSAIAN, MATTHEW TODD GRIMSHAW
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.01.2013
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; PHYSICS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of designing steered-fiber plies that rely on computational optimization techniques to cope with a large design space, while ensuring manufacturability, with respect to design of curved fiber paths for composite laminates.SOLUTION: The conventional process uses the variable stiffness performance of composite laminates attributed to steered fibers to guide design of stream functions describing the fibers to perform the design. This design process combines a finite element-based analysis tool, failure criteria and geometry optimization to determine steered angles associated with stream functions by an optimization program to meet target performance requirements, e.g., load condition(s), and failure criteria for quasi-static or dynamic events. The fiber angle distribution and thickness buildup are computed based on the stream function. The simulated structure is analyzed using finite element analysis (36). The disclosed process allows the designer to impose manufacturing constraints such as fiber steering radius.