Consolidation-driven wrinkling in carbon/epoxy woven fabric prepregs: an experimental and numerical study

Armin Rashidi Mehrabadi, Jonathan P Belnoue, Adam J Thompson, Stephen R Hallett*, Abbas Milani*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)
203 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

An efficient macro-scale finite element approach is introduced to predict defects that arise from the consolidation of carbon fibre woven fabric prepregs. The model incorporates the through-thickness compaction and inter-ply shear behaviour of the plies in the form of a compliant penalty contact in an explicit finite element simulation. For describing the compressibility of uncured prepregs, a one-dimensional compaction model is implemented via a user-subroutine. The model parameters were identified from an experimental programme and validated against compaction and inter-ply shear experiments on a Carbon/Epoxy prepreg. Moreover, the in-plane and out-of-plane behaviour of the woven fabric is captured through a hybrid hypo-elastic membrane and shell modelling approach. The applicability of the model is further demonstrated through a number of industrially relevant case studies. The method is simple, efficient, and it can be applied to assess various scenarios for modelling textile forming and consolidation behaviour.
Original languageEnglish
Article number106298
Number of pages23
JournalComposites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Volume143
Early online date30 Jan 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2021

Keywords

  • Composites manufacturing simulation
  • Wrinkling
  • Excess length
  • Consolidation

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