The paper moves from a technological process developed in previous works to produce chiral honeycombs made of thin composite laminates. Such approach is applied in this work to manufacture the morphing ribs for a variable camber wing-box. The specifications for such components are obtained by developing a finite element model of a demonstrator, which is designed taking into account aeroelastic performances, structural, and technological issues. In the first part of the paper, the design of such a demonstrator is presented and the role of composite chiral ribs with auxetic behavior is outlined. Production, testing, and numerical studies of manufacturing trials are performed to assess the technological process applied to small-sized chiral units made of different materials, to investigate their mechanical properties, and to validate a numerical approach for design and analysis. A complete chiral composite rib is then produced and tests are carried out to verify the overall structural response and to validate the numerical approach
The article presents the advancements in the technological processes developed to produce chiral honeycombs made of thin composite laminates. An original technological process, which was applied to produce chiral components for aerospace morphing structures, is critically analysed and a new approach is proposed. The objective of such approach is the production of thin-walled chiral composite structures with enhanced strength properties by using a more feasible technology. According to the new methodology, chiral honeycombs with polygonal nodes are obtained by assembling thin-walled prismatic composite tubes. Numerical models are developed to investigate the behaviour of such topologies. A comparison with the performances of chiral honeycombs with cylindrical nodes is presented, showing that the new configuration can provide negative Poisson's ratios that tend to the theoretical limit of −1 as the stiffness of the polygonal nodes is increased. Thereafter, a method to fill partially the nodes is proposed and numerically assessed, to enhance at the same time the auxetic behaviour and the mechanical properties of the chiral honeycomb. Finally a complete manufacturing process is developed. Hexa-chiral structural units are manufactured and subsequently tested to assess the auxetic response. Results are in acceptable agreement with numerical predictions and indicate that the novel technological route provides a significant contribution for the application of composite chiral honeycomb to morphing structures
Auxetic chiral topologies can be applied to design composite aeronautical morphing structures with the capability of progressive shape variations. Progresses towards the development of such composite chiral structures require fulfillment of aeroelastic constraints, adequate strength properties and feasible technological routes. Moving from a configuration identified by aeroelastic optimization, design methods and technological processes are set up and applied by Airoldi et al. (pp. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/pssb.201451689) to accomplish such goals. The figure shows a chiral wing‐box demonstrator designed according to the chiral sail concept, which can lead to improve the stabilization effect of aerodynamic surfaces. Laminates made of carbon‐fibre reinforced plastic layers are produced. They are assembled by exploiting elastomeric tooling techniques and, finally, a chiral composite rib is manufactured and tested. In the background, a finite element study is shown for the production of chiral composite networks with enhanced strength properties, by using a simplified technological approach. The relevant numerical and experimental results are reported by Airoldi et al. on pp. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/pssb.201584263.
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