Recent work in the area of composite laminates has focused on the characterization of the strength of laminates constructed from very thin plies. Interlaminar shear and normal stress components have been shown to be concentrated on the edges, the so-called edge effect, of unidirectional laminates at the interface between plies of different fiber orientation. Research has shown that decreasing ply thickness can reduce these interlaminar stress edge effects, and delay delamination in quasi-isotropic laminate specimen for laminates of equal total thickness. First ply failure stress has also been shown to increase with decreasing ply thickness. For these reasons, there has been a great deal of interest in laminated composites constructed from very thin plies. This work studies the impact of manufacturing tolerances on ply orientation on the mechanical properties of the constructed laminate. Direct Monte Carlo simulation is used to model the variance introduced in the manufacturing process. First-order variance-based sensitivity analysis using a local analysis of variance technique is used to study the contribution of each individual ply to the variation in as built mechanical properties. Variation in mechanical properties of thick-ply and thin-ply laminate designs are compared to study if thin-ply laminate designs show more or less variation than their thick-ply counterparts. This work has found potential impacts of ply angle variation on variance of as-built stiffness in laminates of different ply thicknesses. These differences are attributable to the total ply count in a laminate. For a fixed height laminate, the ply count is inversely proportional to thickness, yielding the apparent benefit of thin plies. Using thinner plies in a sub-laminar stacking arrangement, repeating a sublaminate instead of repeating plies, reduces sensitivity to manufacturing errors and would suppress tranverse failure modes. / Master of Science / Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites, a material consisting of carbon fiber filaments bound within a polymer matrix, are commonly used in aerospace applications for their excellent strength to weight ratio. This class of materials is highly tailorable, with strength and stiffness controlled by the number of fiber layers, their thickness, and each layer's respective orientation. Variability in these characteristics arising from manufacturing processes can result in changes in the laminate's engineering properties. This work shows that characterizing the impacts to the engineering properties through Monte-Carlo simulation of variability in the orientation is possible. A Monte-Carlo simulation is a type of statistical simulation where a sample population is generated using an assumed mean and standard deviation. Engineering and statistical analyses can then be performed on this sample population to determine the variability in the engineering properties of the population. In addition, the variability in the population can be studied as a function of each individual fiber layer to understand individual impacts based on orientation and position within the larger composite. Using these analysis techniques presented in this work allows for the study of laminate variability prior to manufacturing, allowing engineers to better understand the material during the design of complex aerospace structures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/119073 |
| Date | 14 May 2024 |
| Creators | Neigh, Thomas Alexander |
| Contributors | Engineering Science and Mechanics, Kapania, Rakesh K., McQuigg, Thomas Dale, Case, Scott W. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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