Virtual Testing of Additively-Manufactured Hybrid Metal-Composite Structures

Completed

Renewable Energy Sources(Ocean Energy)
Renewable Energy Sources(Wind Energy)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Metallurgy and Materials)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Dr LF Kawashita
Aerospace Engineering
University of Bristol

Standard

EPSRC

01 January 2016

30 June 2017

18 months

£99,084

Manufacturing

South West

Manufacturing: Engineering

Dr LF Kawashita, Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol

Project Contact, TEUFELBERGER Ges.m.b.H.., Austria
Project Contact, Sandwell College
Project Contact, Renishaw PLC (Old Town)
Project Contact, University of Bristol

Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) has the potential to revolutionise the design and manufacture of hybrid joints by enabling tailored metal-composite interfaces that promote the optimal load transfer between metal and fibres. This will enable high-performance / high-endurance hybrid structures which can be manufactured via 'co-curing' processes, i.e. consolidation in a single step without the need for secondary adhesive bonding. However, in order to achieve optimal designs a high-fidelity modelling strategy is necessary.This project will develop and validate modelling strategies to:1. Predict the detailed meso-scale structure of hybrid metal-composite materials after manufacture and consolidation, including local fibre orientation with respect to metallic surface protrusions. These methodologies will be validated against micro-CT scans of real specimens.2. Resolve stresses at the level of individual tows/yarns and protrusions, accounting for thermal residual stresses and stresses due to externally applied loads. These data will provide an initial measure of the quality results can be used in the development of load path-based optimisation at the micro- or meso-scale levels3. Analyse joint strength and damage/fracture propagation properties due to combinations of quasi-static, impact and cyclic loading. Validate the methodologies against mechanical tests on real specimens.In a broader sense, this research introduces two new concepts for the design of hybrid metal-composite structures, namely:1. Performance-driven design, with performance being evaluated at the level of individual material constituents (i.e. fibres, matrices and metals), considering realistic micro-structures obtained via in-depth knowledge of the manufacturing process.2. Enabling the optimisation of damage tolerant designs where the objective measure of performance is related to both damage initiation and evolution. Due to time and resource constraints this First Grant research will enable the development of the virtual testing capability only, while the development of a closed-loop optimisation technique will be the focus of future work.

28/03/19