Filament winding pattern generation for non-axisymmetric mandrels based on uniform quadrilateral elements

Abstract

High-strength, continuous and uniform filament winding patterns remain challenging to find for non-axisymmetric models under various loading conditions. In this study, various loading conditions are considered in the development of an algorithm for generating uniform winding patterns for axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric mandrel models with flexible rotation at the ends of the mandrel. First, the mandrel surface is divided into sections by uniform quadrilateral elements and the ideal winding angle at each boundary is calculated based on the stress field. Then, stability analysis is used to calculate suitable winding angles as close as possible to the ideal winding angle for each boundary. These suitable winding angles can be used to generate the uniform winding pattern maintaining non-slippage and non-bridging while realizing flexible rotation at both ends of the mandrel. Finally, uniform patterns for various mandrel models are generated based on their respective suitable winding angles. Stress analysis result demonstrates that the wound mandrel generated by the proposed method can have better carrying capacity.