金属主簧-复合材料副簧复合刚度计算模型

为了揭示金属主簧-复合材料副簧的变形机理并快速预测其复合刚度,综合应用板弹簧设计理论、复合材料层合板理论及有限差分法建立了金属主簧-复合材料副簧复合刚度的理论计算模型,并编写了相应的MATLAB计算程序。采用ABAQUS软件建立了某金属主簧-复合材料副簧总成的有限元模型并对其刚度特性进行有限元模拟。有限元模拟刚度与理论计算刚度之间的误差低于3%,从而验证了理论计算模型的正确性。建立的理论计算模型不但阐明了金属主簧-复合材料副簧的变形机理,而且适宜编程计算,能准确快速地预测金属主簧-复合材料副簧的复合刚度,这对复合材料板簧的推广应用具有重要意义。     

Automated manufacture of optimised shape-adaptive composite hydrofoils with curvilinear fibre paths for improved bend-twist performance

Composite marine propellers improve hydrodynamic efficiency by inducing bend-twist coupling and allowing for passive pitch changes. One critical limitation, however, is the extent to which a composite propeller blade can deform and cause a pitch change without incurring structural failure. Recent numerical studies showed that curvilinear tows could improve the structural response of a composite blade by lowering its deflection or stress and strain required to induce a pitch change, but no experimental validation has been carried out before. The current study, thus, presents the manufacture of composite sandwich hydrofoils made with steered tows using automated fibre placement and validates the curvilinear tow benefits. Two hydrofoils were optimised with straight and curved fibre path layups, respectively and were manufactured for mechanical testing. The manufacturing complications arising from steering curvilinear tows in a three-dimensional convex mould are also discussed in the paper. The study found that significant tow buckling occurred near the tool cavity edge due to excessive steering radius during manufacture. The follow-up structural cantilevered tests showed that the experimental results were consistent with the FE predictions despite the presence of some manufacturing defects. The experiment agreed that the hydrofoil manufactured with curved tows achieved a similar tip twist but a significant reduction in deflection and critical principal strains compared to the hydrofoil made with straight tows. The use of a foam core reduced the overall weight of the sandwich hydrofoils by about 25% compared to that of a fully-carbon composite hydrofoil, and the numerical analysis showed that the core shear failure induced by transverse shear stresses was unlikely to occur.     

Collapse of composite-repaired cylinders with internal metal loss subjected to external hydrostatic pressure

The present study investigates the collapse performance of composite-repaired cylinders with internal metal loss subjected to external pressure. Three groups of intact, thinned, and repaired cylinders were designed, analytically verified, fabricated, geometrically measured, externally tested, and numerically modeled. Each group had three nominally identical cylinders to ensure the repeatability of experiments. The cylinders had the same end closure, effective length, total length, external radius, and intact thickness for an equivalent comparison. The thinned cylinder was considered as the intact cylinder with internal metal loss, whereas the repaired cylinder was considered as the thinned cylinder with composite reinforcement. The results indicated that the external loading capacity of cylinders with internal metal loss could be fully restored and even enhanced by composite reinforcement. Composite-repaired cylinders are much less sensitive to initial geometrical imperfections than intact cylinders.