Thermoplastic composite filament winding is an on-line consolidation process, where the composite experiences a complex temperature history and undergoes a number of temperature history affected microstructural changes that influence the structure's subsequent properties. These changes include melting, crystallization, void formation, degradation and consolidation. In the present study, models of the thermoplastic filament winding process were developed to identify and understand the relationships between process variables and the structure quality. These include models that describe the heat transfer, consolidation and crystallization processes that occur during fabrication of a filament wound composites structure. A comprehensive thermal model of the thermoplastic filament winding process was developed to calculate the temperature profiles in the composite substrate and the towpreg temperature before entering the nippoint. A two-dimensional finite element heat transfer analysis for the composite-mandrel assembly was formulated in the polar coordinate system, which facilitates the description of the geometry and the boundary conditions. A four-node 'sector element' was used to describe the domain of interest. Sector elements were selected to give a better representation of the curved boundary shape which should improve accuracy with fewer elements compared to a finite element solution in the Cartesian-coordinate system. Hence the computational cost will be reduced. The second thermal analysis was a two-dimensional, Cartesian coordinate, finite element model of the towpreg as it enters the nippoint. The results show that the calculated temperature distribution in the composite substrate compared well with temperature data measured during winding and consolidation. The analysis also agrees with the experimental observation that the melt region is formed on the surface of the incoming towpreg in the nippoint and not on the substrate. Incorporated with the heat transfer analysis were the consolidation and crystallization models. These models were used to calculate the degree of interply bonding and the crystallinity achieved during composite manufacture. Bonding and crystallinity developments during the winding process were investigated using the model. It is concluded that lower winding speed, higher hot-air heater nozzle temperature, and higher substrate preheating temperature yield higher nippoint temperature, better consolidation and a higher degree of crystallization. Complete consolidation and higher matrix crystallization will result in higher interlaminar strength of the wound composite structure. / Master of Science

Na busca pela substituição dos materiais convencionais por materiais com alto desempenho estrutural nos mais variados setores do mercado, os materiais compósitos têm recebido cada vez mais a confiança dos engenheiros projetistas. Isto devido às características, comparadas com materiais convencionais como: baixa densidade associada à excelente rigidez e resistência estrutural, alta resistência à corrosão, resistência à temperaturas elevadas e ótimos resultados estéticos. Um dos processos de fabricação bastante utilizado para a produção de peças nestes materiais é o processo conhecido como Filament Winding ou \"Enrolamento Filamentar\". Essa técnica consiste em revestir a superfície de um mandril, através do enrolamento de fibras contínuas impregnadas por um banho de resina. As fibras utilizadas nesse processo, geralmente de vidro ou de carbono são posicionadas em uma trajetória calculada por algoritmos matemáticos que determinam o seu posicionamento adequado, o que está diretamente relacionado às propriedades mecânicas desejadas na peça final. Desta forma, este trabalho tem por objetivo desenvolver um sistema computacional para o cálculo da trajetória de deposição da fibra sobre o mandril e seu seqüenciamento durante o processo de Filament Winding. Foram desenvolvidas e implementadas computacionalmente estratégias para os revestimentos circular, helicoidal e polar utilizando trajetórias geodésicas, o que abrange a grande maioria das peças fabricadas por este processo. Os resultados foram validados com exemplo da literatura e, também através de interface com sistema CAD. / ln the search for the replacement of conventional materials by those with high structural performance, the reinforced composite materials have increasingly used by engineers during the product development process. The main reasons lies in their excellent characteristics compared to conventional materials such as: low-density associated with high stiffness and strength, good tolerance to corrosion, resistance to high temperatures and good aesthetic results. One of the manufacturing processes most used to produce composite parts is the Filament Winding. This technique consists in winding continuous impregnated fiber by a bath of resin along a mandrel. The fibers used are generally of glass or carbon, guided through a trajectory calculated by mathematical algorithms. Because of the importance of this study, this work proposes and develops a computational system to calculate the trajectories and sequences of the fiber in the Filament Winding process, considering geodesic trajectories during the hoop, helical and polar winding, which cover the majority of parts produced by this process. The routines and system are validated with the literature as well as in the CAD system.

Na busca pela substituição dos materiais convencionais por materiais com alto desempenho estrutural nos mais variados setores do mercado, os materiais compósitos têm recebido cada vez mais a confiança dos engenheiros projetistas. Isto devido às características, comparadas com materiais convencionais como: baixa densidade associada à excelente rigidez e resistência estrutural, alta resistência à corrosão, resistência à temperaturas elevadas e ótimos resultados estéticos. Um dos processos de fabricação bastante utilizado para a produção de peças nestes materiais é o processo conhecido como Filament Winding ou \"Enrolamento Filamentar\". Essa técnica consiste em revestir a superfície de um mandril, através do enrolamento de fibras contínuas impregnadas por um banho de resina. As fibras utilizadas nesse processo, geralmente de vidro ou de carbono são posicionadas em uma trajetória calculada por algoritmos matemáticos que determinam o seu posicionamento adequado, o que está diretamente relacionado às propriedades mecânicas desejadas na peça final. Desta forma, este trabalho tem por objetivo desenvolver um sistema computacional para o cálculo da trajetória de deposição da fibra sobre o mandril e seu seqüenciamento durante o processo de Filament Winding. Foram desenvolvidas e implementadas computacionalmente estratégias para os revestimentos circular, helicoidal e polar utilizando trajetórias geodésicas, o que abrange a grande maioria das peças fabricadas por este processo. Os resultados foram validados com exemplo da literatura e, também através de interface com sistema CAD. / ln the search for the replacement of conventional materials by those with high structural performance, the reinforced composite materials have increasingly used by engineers during the product development process. The main reasons lies in their excellent characteristics compared to conventional materials such as: low-density associated with high stiffness and strength, good tolerance to corrosion, resistance to high temperatures and good aesthetic results. One of the manufacturing processes most used to produce composite parts is the Filament Winding. This technique consists in winding continuous impregnated fiber by a bath of resin along a mandrel. The fibers used are generally of glass or carbon, guided through a trajectory calculated by mathematical algorithms. Because of the importance of this study, this work proposes and develops a computational system to calculate the trajectories and sequences of the fiber in the Filament Winding process, considering geodesic trajectories during the hoop, helical and polar winding, which cover the majority of parts produced by this process. The routines and system are validated with the literature as well as in the CAD system.

Natural fibre composites (NFCs), which are polymers reinforced with cellulosic bast fibres, have the potential to be applied into a range of building products. They are seen as an alternative to glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) in some applications, because of natural fibres (NF) relatively high strength and low density. Moreover, natural fibres have a set of beneficial traits, such as thermal insulation, thermal stability, biodegradability, and are inherently renewable. Those characteristics are of importance when NF are used as reinforcements in polymer composites, but developments in mechanical performance, reliability and economic viability are still required in order to be adopted fully by industry. The goal of this thesis was the development of a processing methodology for NFC laminate and subsequent material characterisation to assess the developed material suitability for building applications. Research objectives included materials selection, processing route development for laminates and tubes, manufacture of NFC laminates and analysis of mechanical properties in order to find an optimal composition. Hemp and flax fibres were selected as the reinforcement, because both have high mechanical properties and are important bast fibre crops in the European region with established cultivation and processing methods. As a matrix, fossil-fuel based and partially bio-derived thermoset resin systems were used. Handling and processing methodologies were developed for laminates and composite tubes based on filament winding and compression moulding techniques. The effects of the selected factors, namely material composition, volume fraction, processing parameters, reinforcement linear density, yarn twist, lamination sequence, yarn waviness and hybrid hemp-wool reinforcement were subsequently described in mechanical properties analysis of laminates. The influence of weathering conditions on the mechanical performance of the NFCs was examined. Furthermore, a study of NFC tubes under compression was performed. Results showed that the developed laminates reinforced with NF yarns have sufficient mechanical properties to be utilised in sandwich panels and/or tubes. However, a low resistance to moisture-related weathering restricts the developed NFCs for indoor applications.

Designing a filament winding machine involves two major components. First component is the designing of the mechanism which delivers appropriate winding pattern as specified by the user (i.e. the winding angle). The second component is the realization of an effective fiber tensioning system for ensuring consistent overall consolidation. Today, there exist a variety of sophisticated methods to achieve both these parameters; however the implementation of these techniques increases the price of a winding machine, making its acquisition very difficult for small scale applications. Sophisticated winding machine includes higher number of degrees of freedom, and high end CNC controlled algorithms. However for creating axi-symetric products with constant diameter, only a 2-axis winding is sufficient. On this note a novel cost effective method for fiber winding angle control and fiber winding tension control is designed, simulated, implemented into a low cost prototype 2-axis filament winding machine, and the scope for its? further improvement has also been discussed. The system designed, uses a cost effective PLC as the centralized controller of the system for implementing both fiber winding control and tension control through PID control. A novel actuator for tension control is designed and implemented. Also a comparison between the conventional PI controller and a Mamdani type Fuzzy inference based control system for controlling the fiber tension is made. In this process a novel technique for making PI controller capable of handling known nonlinearities in the system is introduced. Experimental system responses of the designed prototype are analyzed.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Technology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-195).

Plastic filaments are used in a fastly growing industry of 3D printing using the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) method. A poor quality of spool winding can negatively impact the printing process. On the other hand, producing high-quality filament winding is surprisingly difficult to achieve consistently. The thesis proposes a holistic approach to inspect winding quality during the winding process. We suggest tracking reflections of bright visible light. This method seems robust enough to track filament color from black to white and even transparent materials. Furthermore, it is possible to run everything on cheap and widely available Raspberry Pi 4 B with Camera Module v2. The system uses classical computer vision approaches for filtering, segmentation, and inter-frame tracking of individual filament strands between video frames. It was confirmed to be fast enough to process 30 FPS footage directly on the Raspberry Pi in real-time. Additionally, the GUI tool for quick dataset annotation of spool winding images was created along with a small dataset. Both might be useful for the future development of a system, which would predict the quality issues earlier when corrective action can still be carried out to prevent them. 1

The energy absorption capacity of a series of axially crushed composite tubes fabricated from high tow count graphite fiber is compared with those of similar tubes fabricated from aerospace-grade fiber to determine the viability of considering the use of such fibers in automotive applications. To that end, graphite-epoxy tubular specimens with circular and square cross-sectional geometries; stacking sequences with ±45° fibers and with both ±45° and 0° fibers; and two different fiber types were fabricated and crushed both statically and dynamically to examine the energy absorption characteristics. The fiber types, in the form of preimpregnated tow (towpreg) from Thiokol, were Akzo Fortafil 50k fiber and aerospace-grade T300 12k fiber. Using the towpreg, sixteen tubes were filament wound on aluminum mandrels. Three specimens were cut from each of these tubes for a total of forty-eight specimens. Twenty-four of these specimens were crushed statically in a load frame and twenty-four were crushed dynamically in a drop fixture. In order to characterize the tubes and specimens, a number of measurements were taken. These measurements included length, wall thickness, cross-sectional dimensions, volume, and mass. Two important energy absorption measures were examined: the specific energy absorption (SEA) and the ratio of the peak load to the average load. The geometry had a significant effect on the energy absorption but the stacking sequence did not. It was also found that the 50k material was less effective at absorbing energy than the 12k material, but the 50k still may be acceptable. / Master of Science

Neste trabalho são analisados os aspectos relacionados à otimização estrutural de cilindros de alta pressão em compósitos, a partir do estudo detalhado dos procedimentos de cálculo analítico, utilizando o método análise de rede (netting analysis), juntamente com procedimentos baseados em análise numérica pelo método dos Elementos Finitos, considerando modelos de comportamento ortotrópico do material compósito. São considerados cilindros utilizados para armazenamento de oxigênio, fabricados pelo processo de enrolamento filamentar (filament winding), comparados a cilindros confeccionados em metal quanto à sua aplicabilidade. Após análise de diferentes estudos de caso, conclui-se que os materiais compósitos podem ser aplicados com sucesso em cilindros de alta pressão, desde que estabelecidos alguns parâmetros decisivos ao projeto estrutural do vaso, tais como: critério de falha mais adequado; determinação de dados experimentais dos materiais utilizados; normas e códigos utilizados no projeto e dados da geometria final do vaso, dependentes do processo de fabricação. Propõe-se também a utilização de um ambiente integrado das atividades de projeto e fabricação do compósito. / In this work the aspects related to the structural optimization of composite high-pressure cylinders are analyzed from the thorough study of analytical calculation, by the use of netting analysis, along with procedures based on numerical analysis by the Finite Element method, considering models of composite materials with orthotropic behaviour. Cylinders used for oxygen containment, manufactured by filament winding process, are considered and compared to the cylinders manufactured in metal in terms of their application. The analyses of different case studies allowed to conclude that composite materials can be applied successfully in high pressure cylinders provided that some critical parameters have been established to the vessel structural design, such as: an adequate failure criteria; determination of experimental data for the composite materials used; standards and codes used in the design and the final vessel geometry data, dependent variables of the manufacturing process. An integrated environment of the design and manufacturing activities is proposed as well in order to embrace all of these aspects.

Neste trabalho são analisados os aspectos relacionados à otimização estrutural de cilindros de alta pressão em compósitos, a partir do estudo detalhado dos procedimentos de cálculo analítico, utilizando o método análise de rede (netting analysis), juntamente com procedimentos baseados em análise numérica pelo método dos Elementos Finitos, considerando modelos de comportamento ortotrópico do material compósito. São considerados cilindros utilizados para armazenamento de oxigênio, fabricados pelo processo de enrolamento filamentar (filament winding), comparados a cilindros confeccionados em metal quanto à sua aplicabilidade. Após análise de diferentes estudos de caso, conclui-se que os materiais compósitos podem ser aplicados com sucesso em cilindros de alta pressão, desde que estabelecidos alguns parâmetros decisivos ao projeto estrutural do vaso, tais como: critério de falha mais adequado; determinação de dados experimentais dos materiais utilizados; normas e códigos utilizados no projeto e dados da geometria final do vaso, dependentes do processo de fabricação. Propõe-se também a utilização de um ambiente integrado das atividades de projeto e fabricação do compósito. / In this work the aspects related to the structural optimization of composite high-pressure cylinders are analyzed from the thorough study of analytical calculation, by the use of netting analysis, along with procedures based on numerical analysis by the Finite Element method, considering models of composite materials with orthotropic behaviour. Cylinders used for oxygen containment, manufactured by filament winding process, are considered and compared to the cylinders manufactured in metal in terms of their application. The analyses of different case studies allowed to conclude that composite materials can be applied successfully in high pressure cylinders provided that some critical parameters have been established to the vessel structural design, such as: an adequate failure criteria; determination of experimental data for the composite materials used; standards and codes used in the design and the final vessel geometry data, dependent variables of the manufacturing process. An integrated environment of the design and manufacturing activities is proposed as well in order to embrace all of these aspects.