Innovative forming of composite laminates

目前在航空航天工业中纤维增强聚合物复合材料的使用大量增加，因为更轻、更省油和更经济的飞机的前景，例如波音787、空中客车A350 XWB、庞巴迪C系列和里尔85。当今工业的主要推动力之一是通过自动化来提高生产速度。最令人感兴趣的是用自动化带铺叠机快速铺叠由碳纤维增强聚合物薄层制成的平坦复合材料层压板并将整个层压板形成所需形状的能力，类似于金属板成形。然而，目前对于如何将具有单向增强的高性能多轴向复合材料层合板形成为复杂形状的能力和理解有限。

There is currently a large increase in the use of fibre reinforced polymer composite materials in the aerospace industry because of the promise of lighter, more fuel-efficient and more cost effective airplanes, e.g. Boeing 787, Airbus A350 XWB, Bombardier C-series and Learjet 85. One of the major thrusts in industry today is to increase the speed of manufacture through automation. Of great interest is the ability to rapidly lay up flat composite laminates, made of thin layers of carbon fibre reinforced polymers, with an automated tape lay-up machine and form the whole laminate into the desired shape, similar to sheet metal forming. However, there is currently limited ability and understanding of how to form high performance multi-axial composite laminates with unidirectional reinforcement into complex shapes.