Effect of the attitude fine-adjustment of compaction roller on automated fiber placement defects and trajectory

Abstract

Automated fiber placement shows great potential for fabricating complex aircraft structures. During AFP process, the process-induced defects and placement trajectory have important effect on the processing quality. These defects and trajectory are influenced by many factors, where the attitude of compaction roller is an important factor. By the attitude fine-adjustment of compaction roller, the placement defects and trajectory can be improved. It is necessary to study the effect of the attitude fine-adjustment of compaction roller on placement defects and trajectory. The attitude includes yaw and roll of compaction roller, and the placement defects mainly refer to the fitness degree and fiber pull-up. Firstly, the placement ability of compaction roller is defined by making full use of the allowable distance. Then, the yaw angle and position of compaction roller are calculated by differential geometry. Meanwhile, the yaw distance and placement width are given. Secondly, the fiber pull-up is defined and described as planar sinusoidal based on the fiber waviness theory. Then the roll angle and position of compaction roller are given. Finally, a series of experiments and simulations had been conducted to verify the feasibility of the developed method. Results demonstrate that the method can improve the placement defects and trajectory.