An integrated multi-scale approach to modeling and optimization of forming-induced wrinkles in woven fabric composites

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Woven Fabric-Reinforced Polymers (WFRP), as a special class of Textile Structural Composites, have found considerable attention in several leading industries including aerospace, automotive, construction, marine, and defense, owing to their ease of formability along with a combination of light weight and high strength. Despite this wide interest, there still exists a lack of knowledge and standardization in optimum manufacturing conditions that should be applied on WFRP to avoid major defect such as in-plane and/or out-of-plane wrinkles. The current state-of-the-art shows that to correctly capture and mitigate wrinkles in WFRP parts, an integrated design and manufacturing approach is required, whereby the evolution of wrinkles from the draping stages all through to the final resin curing stages (i.e. under processing conditions) and residual stress formations can be accounted for. To address the high degree of complexity in modeling, as well as the high industrial demand for capturing high-fidelity and effective defect mitigation strategies, this NSERC Discovery research program aims at developing a new integrated multi-physics, multi-scale simulation and optimization approach for draping- and processing-induced wrinkles in WFRP. In order to add to the reliability of the proposed fabric processing models, uncertainty effects will also be accounted via robust design-of-experiment techniques linked to X-ray micro-tomography analysis of fabrics microstructure. The main tangible outcomes of this research program will be (i) enhancing our fundamental understanding of multi-scale mechanisms contributing to the formation of wrinkles in WFRP under different fabric properties, forming conditions and part shapes; (ii) developing a new machine-learning and optimization tool that can assist industrial designers to make final recommendations toward cost-effective and efficient wrinkling mitigation strategies, and (iii) training a number of highly qualified personnel (HQP) with competencies in advanced characterization, modeling, forming simulation and optimization of textile composites. Once established and validated, the proposed integrated approach along with the computer tools are expected to be widely used by the collaborating Canadian companies at the Composites Research Network (CRN), and address the process development overhead costs (currently as high as 70%) endured by manufacturers due to random trial and errors.