Induction welded unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic L-joints

Abstract

Induction welding is an effective technique for joining unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites and L-joints can be produced through quick and cost-effective processing steps. However, due to high localized stresses in the skin-stiffener interface, these L-joints are often avoided in primary aircraft structures. Also, no international testing standards have been developed for testing of such joints.

A method was developed for the implementation of a neat thermoplastic resin fillet between the L-joint skin and stiffener web using the induction welding process in an attempt to remove the high stress concentration at this location. A 35.4% increase in quasi-static pull-off strength was measured with a weight penalty of less than 0.5%. This result was compared with a similar autoclave co-consolidated joint, which showed an 80.9% improvement. An ANSYS Parametric Design Language finite element model was developed based on the virtual crack closure technique and it showed that the joint pull-off performance is strongly dependent on geometric parameters such as the skin and stiffener thickness. Also, a new test setup was developed, which reduced internal stresses created by the setup compared to those commonly used in literature.

By further improving the method through which the fillet is joined to the induction welded L-joint, a performance increase similar to that of the co-consolidated joint should be achievable. Test results have shown that the use of this type of fillet can lead to the skin-stiffener interface no longer being the critical failure point for realistic joints in primary aircraft structures.