Innovative forming of composite laminates

目前，由于更轻、更省油和更具成本效益的飞机的前景，纤维增强聚合物复合材料在航空航天行业的使用大幅增加，例如波音787、空中客车A350 XWB、庞巴迪C系列和LearJet85。当今工业的主要发展方向之一是通过自动化来提高生产速度。最令人感兴趣的是能够使用自动铺带机快速铺设由碳纤维增强聚合物薄层制成的扁平复合材料层压板，并将整个层压板成形成所需的形状，类似于板材成形。然而，目前对如何将单向增强的高性能多轴复合材料层合板成形为复杂形状的能力和认识有限。 这项研究的目标之一是开发一种实验测试装置，以研究复合材料层合板的变形性能，并建立基本的变形机理和成形性极限。第二个目标是探索和开发创新的方法，通过在需要大变形的区域对层压板铺层进行局部裁剪和修改来提高成形性。 这项工作有望对适用于几种复合材料制造工艺的复合材料成形性有重要的基础性理解。它还具有对加拿大航空航天工业产生直接影响的强大潜力，其中几家OEM目前正在探索和使用这种类型的技术。复合材料层板在成形性方面的突破将对复合材料制造的速度和成本产生重大影响，并将鼓励这些先进材料在航空航天以及交通和能源等其他应用领域得到更广泛的使用。

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. One goal of the proposed research is to develop an experimental test set-up where the deformability of composite laminates can be studied and fundamental deformation mechanisms and formability limits can be established. A second goal is to explore and develop innovative methods of increasing the formability through local tailoring and modification of the laminate lay-up in areas where large deformations are required. The work is anticipated to generate important fundamental understanding of composites formability applicable to several composites manufacturing processes. It also has a strong potential to have direct impact on the Canadian aerospace industry where several of the OEM's are currently exploring and using this type of technology. Breakthroughs in the formability of composite laminates will have a significant impact on the speed and cost of composites manufacturing and will encourage the wider use of these advanced materials in aerospace as well as other application areas such as transportation and energy.