Effect of Resin Bleed Out on Compaction Behavior of the Fiber Tow Gap Region during Automated Fiber Placement Manufacturing

Abstract

Automated fiber placement is a state-of-the-art manufacturing method which allows for precise control over layup design. However, AFP results in irregular morphology due to fiber tow deposition induced features such as tow gaps and overlaps. Factors such as the squeeze flow and resin bleed out, combined with large non-linear deformation, lead to morphological variability. To understand these complex interacting phenomena, a coupled multiphysics finite element framework was developed to simulate the compaction behavior around fiber tow gap regions, which consists of coupled chemo-rheological and flow-compaction analysis. The compaction analysis incorporated a visco-hyperelastic constitutive model with anisotropic tensorial prepreg viscosity, which depends on the resin degree of cure and local fiber orientation and volume fraction. The proposed methodology was validated using the compaction of unidirectional tows and layup with a fiber tow gap. The proposed approach considered the effect of resin bleed out into the gap region, leading to the formation of a resin-rich pocket with a complex non-uniform morphology.