Towards defect free forming of multi-stacked composite aerospace components using tailored interlayer properties

Sammanfattning: Use of lightweight materials is an important part of reduction of fuel consumption by commercial aircraft. A considerable number of structural aircraft parts are therefore built of thin layers of epoxy pre-impregnated carbon fibres stacked to laminates. Manufacturing these by hand is costly and different methods of automation have therefore been developed. One cost-effective way of manufacturing is Automated Tape Lay-up of flat stacks followed by a Hot Drape Forming operation. A well-known problem in the industry within forming is fibre wrinkling, which can cause a serious strength knock down. The focus of this thesis has therefore been on understanding how and why wrinkles develop during forming of multi-layer stacks and, based on this, investigate different methods for process and material improvements.The work presented initially investigates the dependency between stacking sequence and wrinkle development. It is shown that wrinkle free forming can be obtained by changing the fibre stacking order. In the following investigation it is shown that the wrinkles cannot be entirely eliminated by local stiffening of the critical layers. In a, related study it is shown that different kinds of wrinkles develops during forming; wrinkles may be either due to global buckling of the entire lay-up or local compression of single layers. Global buckling is due to excessive material. Local compression occurs as the material shear during forming.The work presented leads to an understanding of the importance of making the beneficial neighbouring fibre layers interact during forming. One way to connect neighbouring layers is to tailor the interlayer properties. A study is presented that shows how local manipulation of interlayer properties may steer the multi-layered material into a different deformation mechanisms. The manipulation in this thesis is performed using Multi Wall Carbon Nano Tubes, thermoplastic veils or consolidation of thermoplastic toughener particle interlayers.