Structural design of aerospace composites with Hybrid Fibre Architectures

Continuous fibre (CF) aerospace preforms exhibiting excellent mechanical performance possess low formability characteristics and are confined to simple shell-like geometries with minimal curvatures. On the other hand, short fibre preforms such as randomly oriented strands (ROS) offer high formability but exhibit low mechanical performance. The manufacturing of composites involves time and huge costs. The overall research objective is to explore a tradeoff solution that integrates the formability of ROS and performance of CF by hybridizing fibre architectures while using a low cost manufacturing technique. Compression molding (CM) is a low cost manufacturing method and thermoplastics are ideal matrix systems that complement CM. Specific research objectives include determining the rules of hybridization to produce synergistic relations, experimental evaluation and numerical prediction of stiffness and strength of hybrids fabricated with CM. Expected results include a better understanding of the effects of hybridization on design performance through experiments and numerical models, and design and processing guidelines for the use of hybrids. The research would allow the manufacturing of complex shapes with composites while meeting the design performance. Further, the use of thermoplastics with CM would reduce the manufacturing time/cost and allow for the recycling of composites.

Faculty Supervisor:

Pascal Hubert

Student:

Swaroop Bylahally Visweswaraiah

Partner:

Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd.

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Advanced manufacturing

University:

McGill University