Kuehsamy, S. J., Wang, Z.-P., Jhon, M. H., Yang, F., & Sridhar, N. (2024). Design optimization of integral stiffeners for 3D woven composite preforms. Structures, 63, 106449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2024.106449
Abstract:
Although 3D orthogonal textile woven composite panels demonstrate good impact damage resistance, they
often have relatively low bending stiffness. Typically, stiffeners are added to improve the bending resistance
through fabrication processes such as sewing and panel/flange joining through matrix adhesion. These
secondary processes can be undesirable, adding expense and potential weak points to the structure. Inspired
by bio-structures such as peanut shells with surface ridges and graded through-thickness densities, we seek
to develop embedded stiffeners for 3D orthogonal textile woven composite panels at sub-component scale to
enhance the bending stiffness. Such stiffened textile architecture can be integrally fabricated in an orthogonal
loom using standard weaving methods and provides a balance between improving structural bending stiffness
and the manufacturing cost and maintaining good impact damage resistance. Utilizing a manufacturing-based
parameterization method, a low-fidelity evaluation tool based on the iso-strain method is developed and a
straightforward design methodology is proposed to implement these novel composite structures. Numerical
design optimization examples are demonstrated.
License type:
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Funding Info:
This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) - Career Development Fund
Grant Reference no. : C210112026