Manufacturing and Advanced Simulation of Continuous Tow Shearing (MASCoTS)

使用纤维转向来提高复合材料结构的性能被认为在减少材料使用和降低制造成本方面具有巨大的潜力。它还被证明具有气动弹性剪裁的能力。这使得飞机的机翼能够以较小的扭转弯曲。减少扭曲可以使机翼在风速范围内更有效。这将对环境排放产生影响，并提高航空航天结构的经济可行性。这也可以扩展到汽车和风能等其他行业。目前的纤维导向解决方案是自动铺带（ATL）和定制纤维放置（TFP），这两种方法都有局限性。ATL不能以较紧的半径转向，并且转向会导致纤维起皱和间隙，从而影响结构性能。TFP是一个缓慢的过程，因此不能足够快地沉积任何大尺寸的材料。此外，所用的拼接也会损害结构性能。iCOMAT发明了一种新的胶带铺设工艺，连续剪切（CTS），其速度有望与ATL相媲美，但不会产生起皱和缝隙。它也可以围绕紧半径（100mm）铺设。然而，有一个问题是，商业软件不存在，以简化设计，分析和优化结构使用CTS。该项目旨在将CTS原型头部设计开发到可以引入工业应用的水平。与此同时，MSC软件公司将开发设计、分析和优化工具，使其能够为潜在用户使用。他们还将编写一个工具，将最终设计转换回光纤路径，供CTS头遵循，完成这个过程中的“数字线程”。DaptaBlade将开发多学科软件，将机翼结构模型与流体动力学分析相结合，以执行气动弹性裁剪。该项目还将创建示范结构，用于验证分析和制造软件。这些将在TWI进行结构测试。

The use of fibre steering to enhance composite structural performance has been seen as having significant potential for reducing material use and reduction in manufacturing costs. It also has been shown to have capabilities for aero-elastic tailoring. This allows an aircraft wing to bend with a reduced twist. Reducing twist allows the wing to be more efficient over a range of wind speeds. This will have an impact on environmental emissions and improve the economic viability in aerospace structures. This could also be extended into other sectors like automotive and wind energy.Current solutions for fibre steering are automatic tape laying (ATL) and tailored fibre placement (TFP) These have both of limitations. ATL cannot steer with a tight radius and steering causes fibre wrinkling and gaps, compromising the structural performance. TFP is a slow process so cannot deposit material fast enough for anything of a significant size. Also the stitching used compromises the structural performance.iCOMAT have created a new tape laying process, continuous tow shearing (CTS) which promises to rival the speed of ATL but without the wrinkling and gaps. It also can lay around tight radii (100mm). However there is an issue that commercial software does not exist to simplify design, analysis and optimisation of structures using CTS.The project is aiming to develop the prototype CTS head design to a level where it can be introduced to industrial applications. In parallel to this development MSC Software will develop design, analysis and optimisation tools to make it accessible to prospective users. They will also write a tool translating the final design back into fibre paths for the CTS head to follow, completing the "digital thread" in this process. DaptaBlade will develop multi-disciplinary software which will enable coupling of a wing structural model with fluid dynamics analyse to perform aeroelastic tailoring.The project will also create demonstrator structures which will be used to verify the analysis and manufacturing software. These will be structurally tested at TWI.