This study used the vacuum bag-only process to fabricate angle composite parts on a complex-shape mold by employing interleaved unidirectional prepreg and dry fiber. The study focuses on the thickness variation along the angle part by analyzing the thickness distribution within the angle part by the statistic method. The corner thickness deviation (CTD) and angle deviation (AD) of the angle part were used to quantify the quality of the part by different process parameters and mold design. The results indicated that the CTD and AD were both linearly decreased with the increase of the part thickness. Besides, the part fabricated with the convex mold presented higher dimensional stability and uniformity as compared to that with the concave mold. In addition, we investigated the effect of caul plate applied at the corner regions, and the results showed that the lead caul plate could effectively improve the thickness change in the corner area in both the concave and convex mold. In order to fully understand the thickness variation of the part at the corner region, a semi-empirical model was proposed to forecast the corner thickness deviation of angle part. In this study, the prediction errors of the semi-empirical model for the parts by the concave and convex molds are 10% and 25%, respectively.
This study used the vacuum bag-only (VBO) process to fabricate angle composite parts with interleaved layup of prepreg and dry bers. The quality of angle parts is investigated by statistical methods, which are divided into two parts: geometric characteristics and internal characteristics. The results indicated that the part fabricated by the convex mold presented higher dimension stability and uniformity as compared to that by the concave mold. In addition, the lead caul plate could effectively improve the thickness change in the corner area in both the concave and convex molds, and both the lead and Sirubber caul plates could signi cantly reduce the angle deviation. For the internal characteristics, to quantify the void content of the laminate, we propose a scoring mechanism to analyze angle part. The part fabricated by the convex mold has higher score than that by the concave mold. In order to fully understand the thickness variation of the part at the corner region, a semi-empirical model was proposed to calculate the corner thickness deviation in different mold geometry and stacking thickness. In this study, the prediction errors of the semi-empirical model for the parts by the concave and convex molds are 17.6% and 16.1%, respectively.
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