Analysis and Design for Accelerated Production and Tailoring of composites (ADAPT)

Start Date 01/09/16 - Finish Date 31/12/20

Establishing novel manufacturing techniques that speed up deposition of stiffness tailored

This project is developing novel manufacturing techniques to ensure delivery of better products by minimising occurrence of manufacturing defects. The project will enable production of high performance composite components at rates suitable for the next generation of short-range aircraft.

If demand for production of next-generation, short-range commercial aircraft is to be profitably met, current methods for composite airframe manufacture must achieve significant increases in material deposition rates at reduced cost. However, improved rates cannot come at the expense of safety or increased airframe mass.

This project will enable a fourfold increase in productivity by establishing novel manufacturing techniques that speed up deposition of stiffness tailored material. New continuum mechanics-based forming models will ensure delivery of better products by minimising occurrence of manufacturing defects. In a parallel stream of activity, new methodologies for analysis and design of composite structures in which the ply angle and thickness of fibre-reinforcement is spatially tailored, both continuously and discretely, will reduce the need for stiffening, leading to significant savings in structural mass (by up to 30%) and manufacturing cost (by up to 20%). Potential structural integrity and damage tolerance issues, such as transition in fibre angle and tapering of laminate thickness from one discrete angle to another, will be addressed.

Recent Updates

A new method for determining the formability of a stack of layers of different fibre orientations has been devised.

Collaborators

• Professor Tim Dodwell, Academic Principle Investigator, https://emps.exeter.ac.uk/engineering/staff/td336
• Professor Richard Butler, https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/richard-butler-2
• Dr Andrew Rhead, https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/andrew-rhead

Partners