A novel methodology to quantify shape complexity of composite aerospace parts

Chowdhury, Mohammad Tanvir; Turner, Thomas

Abstract

Composite materials are increasingly being used to produce aerospace parts due to their versatility when compared to metal counterparts. The design freedom afforded by composites and their manufacturing allow design engineers the possibility to create complex and integrated designs that save assembly weight and cost. This design activity takes place during early stages when there is a lack of information and hence it is easy to make miscalculated design modifications. This often leads to designs becoming overly complex and infeasible to manufacture; a consequence that will only be fully realised during the later stages. To quantify the complexity of designs, a metric called Shape Complexity SC has been developed. The SC data allows robust and informed decision making for factors such as whether part assemblies should be highly integrated (low part count) or more differentiated into more, but less complex, individual parts. In metals it is generally sufficient to quantify the geometric features and thus determine the SC value, however, composites additionally require the layup information to be quantified and current methods do not capture this. This developed SC metric addresses this by quantifying the layup information into Layup Complexity LC in addition to quantifying the geometric features into Geometric Complexity GC. This paper presents the novel methodology to quantify the shape complexity of composite aerospace parts that uses the limited amount of information of early design stages.

Citation

Chowdhury, M. T., & Turner, T. (2019, August). A novel methodology to quantify shape complexity of composite aerospace parts. Presented at The 22nd International Conference on Composites Materials (ICCM22), Melbourne, Australia

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: The 22nd International Conference on Composites Materials (ICCM22)
• Start Date: Aug 11, 2019
• End Date: Aug 16, 2019
• Acceptance Date: Jul 1, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 22, 2020
• Volume: ICCM 22 2019
• Pages: 3032-3039
• ISBN: 9781925627220
• Keywords: Shape Complexity; Composites; Early Decision Making; Part Integration; Part Differentiation
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4701297
• Publisher URL: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=910636275681675;res=IELENG
• Additional Information: © Engineers Australia 2019