Over the past 25 years, interest in thermoplastic composites in aircraft has steadily increased. Combining winding and laser-assisted tape placement is a promising method to manufacture thermoplastic structures using in-situ consolidation, as shown recently by manufacturing a variable stiffness, unitized, integrated-stiffener thermoplastic wingbox at the University of Limerick. The corner regions are a critical point of the structure and require in-depth characterization studies, for example by unfolding L-shaped samples in a 4-point bend test. In this work, samples with radii varying from 2 to 10 mm were manufactured and tested. Two manufacturing parameters were varied: the rotational speed and acceleration of the tool. Test data show that decreasing the radius increases the corner strength, but an optimum radius exists to withstand a maximum unfolding force/moment. In addition, the slowest deposition rate with least acceleration of the head used during manufacturing lead to the highest corner strength for the same radius.

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Despite their importance in benchmarking numerical simulations, buckling tests still feature compromises between component-level and high-fidelity large-scale tests. For example, compression-induced buckling tests cannot capture the through-thickness or span-wise stress gradients in wing skins. Consequently, the results obtained often require careful interpretation and conservative considerations before applying to a structure. Alternatively, a system-level large-scale test can be used, yet at considerably increased time and expense. There has been little progression towards capturing system-level behaviour in a simplified test. Herein, for buckling behaviour assessment, a three-point bending test is used, which is quick, simple to implement, and cost-effective compared to existing conventional methods. The proposed method relies on subjecting a panel with auxiliary stiffeners to bending to introduce compression-induced buckling in the skin. The three-point bend test is used, because it provides readily controllable loading and boundary conditions. The location of the neutral plane can be tailored via design of the stiffeners, thus allowing for control of the through-thickness stress gradient induced in the skin. This method is applicable to buckling of stiffened structures subject to bending (e.g., aircraft wingboxes). Numerical models are used to explore the limits of the proposed method and comparing it against traditional coupon and full-scale structural level tests. The test method is experimentally demonstrated for capturing the buckling behaviour of a thermoplastic composite panel made via automated fibre placement. The proposed approach is shown to reliably capture the buckling behaviour of a large-scale test using a simpler and more time and cost-efficient setup than conventional methods.

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Laser-assisted automated tape placement (LATP) in-situ consolidation of thermoplastic composites offers an efficient solution for production of large, high performance composite structures. The present work investigates laser repass treatment as a method of enhancing surface roughness and mechanical properties of LATP processed CF/PEEK laminates. Three laminate stacking sequences were studied, viz. [0°]₁₆, [−45°/0°/45°/90°]_2s and [±45°]_4s. Four repass treatments were performed, including single, double, perpendicular and tool-side repasses. The effect of these repasses on interlaminar shear strength (ILSS), open-hole compression (OHC), in-plane shear (IPS), density, fibre volume fraction, void content and surface roughness was investigated. Surface roughness tests confirmed the improvement of the surface finish due to repass treatment. However, insignificant differences in ILSS values were observed across all repass treatments, but a single laser repass did appear to improve the OHC and IPS performance. Autoclave treated samples were used as a benchmark to compare with LATP processed laminate properties.

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This study investigates a device for in-line continuous spreading of carbon fibre/thermoplastic pre-preg tape for potential application in the Laser-Assisted Automatic Tape Placement (LATP) laminate manufacturing process. The spreading device allows variable tape width to be achieved locally during lay-up. Integration of this device in the LATP process would remove gap and overlap manufacturing defects in variable angle tow (VAT) laminates and complex curvature components. During trials different width tapes were produced using the novel spreading device. Three different width increases were investigated, viz. 15%, 30% and 45%, and were compared with as-received tape. Initial trials indicate that it is possible to achieve a tape width increase of 62%. Preliminary characterisation tests show that the spreading process does not adversely affect the properties of the tapes. Physical properties including cross-sectional area, fibre volume fraction and void content remain similar to as-received tape. Furthermore, differential scanning calorimetry data show that levels of crystallinity increase due to spreading, improving related mechanical properties.

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Automated manufacturing of thermoplastic composites has found increased interest in aerospace applications over the past three decades because of its great potential in low-cost, high rate, repeatable production of high performance composite structures. Experimental validation is a key element in the development of structures made using this emerging technology. In this work, a mm variable-stiffness unitised integrated-stiffener out-of-autoclave thermoplastic composite wingbox is tested for a combined shear-bending-torsion induced buckling load. The wingbox is manufactured by in-situ consolidation using a laser-assisted automated tape placement technique. It is made and tested as a demonstrator section located at 85% of the wing semi-span of a B-737/A320 sized aircraft. A bespoke in-house test rig and two aluminium dummy wingboxes are also designed and manufactured for testing the wingbox assembly which spans more than 3m. Prior to testing, the wingbox assembly and the test rig were analysed using a high fidelity finite element method to minimise the failure risk due to the applied load case. The experimental test results of the wingbox are also compared with the predictions made by a numerical study performed by nonlinear finite element analysis showing less than 5% difference in load-displacement behaviour and buckling load and full agreement in predicting the buckling mode shape.

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Mechanical properties of composite laminates can be tuned by either tailoring ply orientations or by using ply drops to change thickness profiles. The latter cause resin-rich pockets to form in thermoset composites that are autoclave cured after lay-down. This paper focuses on the morphology of ply drop regions with carbon fibre thermoplastic composites manufactured using in-situ consolidation with laser-assisted tape placement. Our work shows that when laying a 0° ply (parallel to the ply drop) over a ply drop then the ply readily conforms to the shape of the ply drop, eliminating voids. However, when a 90° ply covers a ply drop, the processing direction affects behaviour. When the ply ascends a ply drop, a void is created. On the other hand, when the ply descends a ply drop, the substrate changes its shape due to combined laser heat and roller pressure, leading to significantly smaller voids.

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Composite structures are extensively used in many industries, where they are subjected to a variety of loads and may undergo large deformations. Reliable utilisation of such structures requires prior knowledge of their failure response. In order to predict failure loads and modes, accurate, yet computationally efficient, evaluation of three-dimensional (3D) stress fields becomes important. In this paper, we present a modelling approach, based on the Unified Formulation, that accounts for geometric nonlinearity in laminated composites and predicts 3D stress fields for subsequent failure analysis. The approach builds upon the hierarchical Serendipity Lagrange finite elements and is able to capture high-order shear deformation, as well as local cross-sectional warping. A total Lagrangian approach is adopted and the classic Newton-Raphson method is employed to solve the nonlinear governing equations. A key novelty of the proposed formulation is its completeness and its applicability to fully anisotropic structures. In other words, using the Green-Lagrange strain components within the Unified Formulation framework, the explicit form of the tangent stiffness matrix is derived including general stiffness properties. This new model is benchmarked against 3D finite element solution, as well as other formulations available in the literature, by means of static analyses of highly nonlinear, laminated composite beam-like structures. Significant computational efficiency gains over 3D finite elements are observed for similar levels of accuracy. Furthermore, to show the enhanced capabilities of the present formulation, the postbuckling response of a composite stiffened panel is compared with experimental results from the literature. The 3D stress fields computed in the postbuckling regime are used to detect failure of the stiffened panel. The corresponding failure mode, as obtained by the new model, is shown to match with the experiment.

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A critically important consideration of stiffened structural panels is the interfacial properties between skin and stiffener. In the present study a novel implementation of laser-assisted tape placement (LATP) was used to produce a representative skin-stiffener of a wingbox from carbon fibre reinforced PEEK. First, a stiffener is manufactured using this method and subsequently the skin is attached using the same method without need for a secondary bonding process. The interfacial properties between the skin and stiffener have been characterised in terms of interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and fracture toughness (Mode-I and Mode-II) properties. LATP laydown direction and laser power was found to influence the skin-stiffener interface Mode-I fracture toughness, but not affect the Mode-II fracture toughness. The values of ILSS and fracture toughness compare favourably with those results reported in the literature, in particular for those reported for equivalent aerospace certified CF/PEEK material (APC-2).@en