Geometry Assurance Integrating Process Variation With Simulation of Spring-In for Composite Parts and Assemblies

Abstract

Geometrical variation and deviation in all manufacturing processes affect quality of the final product. Therefore geometry assurance is an important tool in the design phase of a new product. In the automotive and aviation industries where the use of composite parts is increasing drastically, new tools within variation simulations are needed. Composite parts tend to deviate more from nominal specification compared to metal parts. Methods to simulate the manufacturing process of composites have been developed before. In this paper we present how to combine the process variation simulation of composites with traditional variation simulations. The proposed method is demonstrated on a real complex subassembly, representing part of an aircraft wing-box. Since traditional variation simulation methods are not able to capture the spring-in and the special deviation behavior of composites, the proposed method adds a new feature and reliability to the geometry assurance process of composite assemblies.

Analysis of process-induced deformation on the spring-in of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer thin laminates

“…high quality requirements, to avoid aesthetical defects or internal residual stresses. Moreover, small geometrical deviations on product single components involve significant geometrical deviations on the entire assembly, as studied in these works, 1,2 that may be in composite or in composite and metallic materials. 3 Geometrical deviations are generally caused by residual stress and deformations due to the cure process and to the thermo-mechanical characteristics of the involved materials.…”

Clamping force integrated computer aided tolerancing in composite assembly

“…Polini et al 16 reported their tolerance analysis study of a composite flaperon involving free-form surfaces. Jareteg 1,17 and S€ oderberg et al 18 studied composite assembly tolerance analysis and variation simulation. Wang and Li 19,20 proposed a preloading modified probability density function based tolerance simulation method for the composite wingbox assembly.…”

Two numerical tools for geometrical deviation management in composite assemblies: a comparison

“…11 The uncertainty in ply thickness and fiber orientations of polymer matrix composite materials and the spring-in phenomena due to the curing process was studied in Ref. 12 Some works of the literature combined the spring-in deviations of L-shaped parts into a T-shaped assembly in polymer matrix reinforced by fibers through the method of influence coefficients [13][14][15][16] or by means of finite element analysis (FEA). 17 It can be underlined that there is no work of the literature on the management of the entire information flow from manufacturing to assembly.…”

“…11 The uncertainty in ply thickness and fiber orientations of polymer matrix composite materials and the spring-in phenomena due to the curing process was studied in Ref. 12…”