Enhanced characterization of tow gaps in fiber steered laminates: Advanced specimen design for better representation of defects in structures

The thesis aimed to characterize the effects of manufacturing-induced defects, particularly gaps in variable stiffness laminates. The primary focus centered on designing a specimen capable of accurately characterizing gap effects. A refined, element-level specimen design featuring a controlled gauge zone was developed, based on pre-defined...

Incorporating Bird Strike Crashworthiness Requirements within an MDO Framework

The present study, which was carried out in collaboration with GKN Fokker, focuses on incorporating bird strike crashworthiness requirements within a multidisciplinary optimization (MDO) framework. During the preceding three-month internship in the same company, a pivotal contribution to this project was the development of an Abaqus interface...

Stiffness Design of Laminated Composites: Efficient Conversion of Lamination Parameters into Stacking Sequences

Fibre-reinforced laminated composites are constructed layer-by-layer, allowing their material properties to be easily tailored relative to their isotropic counterparts (metallic alloys). Moreover, a composite structure with variable stiffness (VS) can be made by spatially tailoring stiffness across a laminate. This permits better load...

Width deformation of thermoplastic prepreg tapes during in-situ Automated Fiber Placement: An experimental investigation into the width deformation mechanism and influence of processing parameters

Increasing demands for composite structures and sustainability goals have resulted in the growth of thermoplastic polymer matrix composites and automated manufacturing technologies. The in-situ Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) manufacturing of thermoplastic prepreg tapes has the potential to provide a fast and cost-effective manufacturing...

The Consolidation of Rapid Laser Deconsolidated Composite Tapes

Laser-assisted fiber placement (LAFP) is an automated manufacturing technique with promising potential to produce larger aerospace structural components using thermoplastic composites. However, during the rapid heating phase, deconsolidation of composite tapes can occur, resulting in negative effects on bond forming ability. This study aimed to...

Dynamically feasible data-driven trajectory generation for high performance control of robot manipulators

Robot manipulators are significantly more accurate than their human counterparts and enhance the repeatability of various tasks. However, manufactures still provide reduced information regarding the robot controller functions, typically affecting robots' predictability. Additionally, industrial examples show that system transparency could be...

Experimental and numerical investigation on the crush behavior of composite Formula One structures

The state-of-the-art design approach of composite structures in Formula One (F1) rely on expensive full-scale crash tests and simple models that cannot describe the underlying physical phenomena during crushing. Although the models can describe the crush forces and resulting accelerations, their predictive capabilities are poor, and several...

Deconsolidation of thermoplastic prepreg tapes during the heating phase of LAFP: An experimental investigation into the effect of a resin-rich surface and tape pre-tension

Laser-assisted automated fiber placement (LAFP) is a promising additive manufacturing technique for the production of large aerospace components. Thermoplastic prepreg tapes will be placed ply-by-ply on top of a mould and in-situ consolidated. This is beneficial for higher production rates. The mechanical performance of thermoplastic composite...

The effects of local fibre steering: Reducing gaps and overlaps by compensating for tow width fluctuation in automated fibre placement

The aerospace industry increasingly uses fibre-reinforced plastics that are manufactured using automated fibre placement (AFP). A common problem in AFP is the occurrence of gaps and overlaps that affect the structural perfromance of laminates. Tow width fluctuation is an important cause of gaps and overlaps. Two developments in manufacturing are...

LayLa: An open-source offline programming framework for composite deposition

The versatility of automated composite technologies granted the possibility of manufacturing laminates with a continuous variation of fiber orientation, also known as Variable Stiffness Laminates (VSL). Despite offering enough dexterity to be adapted for composite deposition, industrial manipulators are nontrivial to integrate into other...

Optimization of Automotive Structure using Variable Stiffness Laminates

Variable Stiffness Laminates are created by spatially varying the fiber orientation resulting in designs that makes use of curved fibers rather than Uni-directional fibers to tailor the properties to design requirement. The advent of automated manufacturing methods such as Automated Fiber Placement and Tailored Fiber Placement has made variable...

Design Optimization of Variable-Stiffness Composite Panels under Thermomechanical Loads

Striving to improve structural efficiency the aerospace industry shows increasing interest in variable-stiffness composite laminates. Advanced fiber placement is a hybrid manufacturing technique that offers the flexibility of both filament winding and automated tape laying. With the development of this novel system curved tows can be placed and...