Models for Manufacturing of Composite and Hybrid Materials

In this paper, the modelling and experimental works are presented which were carried out at TU Delft on the manufacturing process of thermoset composites in general and more specifically on Fibre Metal Laminates (FMLs). Modelling is based on a thermo-viscoelastic approach developed for composites which have an orthotropic viscoelastic response. Indeed the curing stresses are also incorporated due to the matrix shrinkage and evolution of the stiffness. Thermal and viscoelastic responses of the polymeric part are experimentally characterised. A user defined material model is added to ANSYS able to analyse the orthotropic thermo-viscoelastic behaviour. The characterisation process and the models are applied to GLARE and the residual stresses and curvature of non-symmetric panels are calculated. Comparison to the measured curvature of manufactured laminates, shows the accuracy of the modelling and the material characterisations.