• Kratz, James
• Ivanov, Dmitry S.
• Nixon-Pearson, Oliver J.
• Belnoue, Jonathan P.-H.
• Hallett, Stephen R.
• Mesogitis, Tassos

Abstract

Wrinkles in components made of composite materials are detrimental for the component integrity and need to be avoided. Even though process modelling techniques have considerably improved over the past 20 years or so, predicting the appearance of wrinkles arising from the manufacturing process remains very challenging. The paper proposes a new numerical framework for the prediction of wrinkle formation in composite manufacturing. Two industry relevant cases (i.e. a specimen mimicing gaps and overlaps arising from an automated fibre placement (AFP) process and a stepped laminate) are analysed using this new method. Model predictions for the internal ply geometries are compared to real samples micrographs.This demonstrates the model's ability to predict wrinkles formed during composite manufacturing and gives further validation of a consolidation model for toughened prepreg proposed earlier by the authors.

Topics

• composite