Integrated manufacturing of composites

制造良好的复合材料结构正变得越来越复杂。为了以一致、可重复的方式制造结构，必须结合有关可能影响制造该结构所需工艺的参数的基本理论知识和实践知识。在当前的最先进水平中，有方法和现有的模型管理从基本设计到最终制造的许多方面。这项研究的目的是找到一种方法来优化和改进设计，为了制造出更好、更一致的零件，对复合材料结构进行分析和制造。现有的模型和软件工具往往是“独立”的工具，只能帮助某些方面的设计。我以液体复合材料模塑(LCM)注塑制造过程为例。制造业希望使用这些过程来制造良好的复合材料零件，但必须处理用于设计、应力分析、纤维放置和树脂流动预测的单独的软件工具。*更精细的建模工具应该能够以优化的方式组合或集成从这些单独的工具获得的信息。此外，通常还需要考虑特定于应用的其他方面(例如环境影响、疲劳、振动和减振)。本研究开发的建模和优化工具将通过对复合材料结构的广泛测试进行验证。由此产生的建模工具将帮助航空航天、汽车、体育用品和其他需要广泛使用先进复合材料的行业。综上所述，本研究的目的是整合复合材料的设计方法，以产生有用的设计工具。

Manufacturing of good composite material structures is becoming increasingly complex.  In order to fabricate structures in a consistent, repeatable manner, there must be a combination of basic theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge about the parameters that might affect the processes needed to manufacture that structure.  In the current state-of-the-art, there are methods and existing models that govern many aspects of making a part, from basic design to final manufacturing.  The purpose of this research is to find a way to optimize and improve the design, analysis and manufacturing of composite material structures in order make better and more consistent parts.  The models and software tools that exist tend to be "stand-alone" tools that can help with only certain aspects of design.  Take the Liquid Composite Molding (LCM) injection manufacturing processes an example.  Industry would like to make good composite parts using these processes, but one has to deal with separate software tools for design, stress analysis, fiber placement and resin flow prediction.  A more refined modeling tool should be able to combine or integrate the information gained from these separate tools in an optimized way.  In addition, there are often other aspects specific to an application, which may need to be considered (environmental effects, fatigue, vibration and damping as examples). Modeling and optimization tools developed in this research would be verified by extensive testing of composite structures.  The resulting modeling tools will help those in the aerospace, automotive, sporting goods and other industries where extensive use of advanced composite materials is desired. In summary, the purpose of this research is to integrate design methods for composite materials in order to produce useful design tools.