Computational optimisation strategies of tailored fibre placement in polymer matrix composites based on local shear stress minimisation

Description

Continuous fibre reinforced polymer matrix composites exhibit a challenging anisotropic material behaviour which allows the design of high performance structures [1,2]. In many practical applications, structural components are built up by layers of straight fibre reinforcements. These components show adequate thermomechanical properties with respect to multiaxial loading conditions. However, if only a well defined set of loading conditions is applied, structure weight and costs can be saved by tailored fibre placement (TFP) [2,3]. Covering general stress levels by a basis material and apply adequate tailored fiber reinforcement to those areas where local stress levels are occuring during the loading paths, is the basic idea of TFP. As a consequence TFP leads to weight reduction of structural components. Therefore in manufacturing it is the goal laying up as less fibre reinforcements as possible, however, sufficient enough subject to the specific loading conditions. This requires proper computational optimisation strategies which deliver the local fibre orientation such that local arising shear stresses are minimised. A widely used method is aligning continuous fibre reinforcements along the principle stress trajectories. In engineering applications the principle stress trajectories are calculated by FEM analysis for structural components with pure isotropic material behaviour. To reduce computational costs in such approaches the coupling between stress state and fibre orientation during the optimisation procedure is neglected. The aim of this paper is to present optimisation strategies of TFP in polymer matrix composites using FEM analysis with the principle stress criterion. In this work we will shed some light on the differences of typical engineering approaches which are state of the art for TFP and full consistent schemes where stress states and fibre orientation are coupled.

Period	19 Jun 2013
Event title	Computational Methods for Coupled Problems in Science and Engineering V
Event type	Conference
Location	SpainShow on map