Design and analysis of the mandrel structure for a composite S-shaped inlet

Abstract

Automated fiber placement (AFP) combining with the autoclave curing process is the main manufacturing method for large-scale rotary composite parts. During the forming process, the mandrel plays an important role that affects the forming quality of the part directly. In this study, design and analysis of the mandrel structure for a composite S-shaped inlet are carried out. The preforming process of the rotary composite part using the AFP technique is introduced first. Then, design principles of the shaft are presented and applied to the shaft design for the mandrel of the S-shaped inlet, which then is transformed into an optimization problem. The internal penalty function method is adopted to solve this optimization problem in order to obtain the optimal axis position and axle diameter. Moreover, detailed structure design of the mandrel is proposed which takes the demolding into consideration, and the wall thickness is designed considering the total weight and the stiffness. The static analysis and modal analysis are also carried out by the finite element method to verify the feasibility of the proposed mandrel structure.