All Outputs (32)

Thermoplastic composite injection-overmoulding with indirectly-loaded reinforcement: Design for manufacture (2024)
Journal Article

Thermoplastic Overmoulding is an emerging manufacturing method combining low-cost, high-rate injection moulding with continuous fibre composite elements. The combination of materials with dissimilar stiffnesses can create stress concentrations and wa... Read More about Thermoplastic composite injection-overmoulding with indirectly-loaded reinforcement: Design for manufacture.

A global-to-local sub modelling approach to investigate the effect of lubrication during double diaphragm forming of multi-ply biaxial non-crimp fabric preforms (2023)
Journal Article

The forming behaviour of preforms constructed from multiple plies of Non-Crimp Fabric (NCF) has been investigated for manufacturing a complex double-curved geometry using Double Diaphragm Forming (DDF). An established multi-resolution finite element... Read More about A global-to-local sub modelling approach to investigate the effect of lubrication during double diaphragm forming of multi-ply biaxial non-crimp fabric preforms.

The influence of inter-ply friction during double-diaphragm forming of biaxial NCFs (2023)
Journal Article

Inter-ply friction plays an important role in the formation of defects in automated preforming of complex components, as relative sliding between plies can generate local compressive stresses in the direction of the primary yarns, leading to out-of-p... Read More about The influence of inter-ply friction during double-diaphragm forming of biaxial NCFs.

Design guidelines for hybrid continuous/discontinuous carbon fibre laminates (2022)
Journal Article

Combining discontinuous carbon fibre moulding compounds with unidirectional (UD) non-crimp fabric has been studied as a potential solution for producing cost effective composite structures, with short cycle times via compression moulding. The tensile... Read More about Design guidelines for hybrid continuous/discontinuous carbon fibre laminates.

Optimisation of intra-ply stitch removal for improved formability of biaxial non-crimp fabrics (2021)
Journal Article

Automated fabric forming solutions are required to meet the demand of liquid moulding processes, but wrinkling is a common problem for double-curvature parts due to a combination of the reinforcement type, manufacturing parameters and the part geomet... Read More about Optimisation of intra-ply stitch removal for improved formability of biaxial non-crimp fabrics.

Investigation into the effects of inter-ply sliding during double diaphragm forming for multi-layered biaxial non-crimp fabrics (2021)
Journal Article

The effect of inter-ply sliding was investigated for multi-ply Non-Crimp Fabric (NCF) preforms during the Double Diaphragm Forming (DDF) process. A Finite Element (FE) model was employed to investigate the influence of the ply layup sequence and the... Read More about Investigation into the effects of inter-ply sliding during double diaphragm forming for multi-layered biaxial non-crimp fabrics.

Double diaphragm forming simulation using a global-to-local modelling strategy for detailed defect detection in large structures (2021)
Journal Article

A global-to-local modelling strategy is presented based on a sub-modelling approach to predict the formation of macroscale defects in bi-axial non-crimp fabric (NCF) during double diaphragm forming (DDF). A full-scale global simulation is initially p... Read More about Double diaphragm forming simulation using a global-to-local modelling strategy for detailed defect detection in large structures.

Simulating the effect of fabric bending stiffness on the wrinkling behaviour of biaxial fabrics during preforming (2021)
Journal Article

A macroscopic finite element model has been established to investigate the forming-induced wrinkling behaviour for bi-axial fabrics. Results indicate that using a linear bending model with a constant bending stiffness produces unrealistic wrinkle pat... Read More about Simulating the effect of fabric bending stiffness on the wrinkling behaviour of biaxial fabrics during preforming.

Electro-thermal and mechanical performance of multi-wall carbon nanotubes buckypapers embedded in fibre reinforced polymer composites for ice protection applications (2020)
Journal Article

Several ice protection strategies have been developed to overcome the icing hazards in the aerospace industry. The electro-thermal method is one of the popular approaches to prevent ice accretion and accumulation on aircraft surfaces. Given the incre... Read More about Electro-thermal and mechanical performance of multi-wall carbon nanotubes buckypapers embedded in fibre reinforced polymer composites for ice protection applications.

A macroscale finite element approach for simulating the bending behaviour of biaxial fabrics (2020)
Journal Article

A macroscale finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate the forming behaviour of biaxial fabrics, incorporating the effects of bending stiffness to predict fabric wrinkling. The dependency of the bending stiffness on the fibre orientation wa... Read More about A macroscale finite element approach for simulating the bending behaviour of biaxial fabrics.

Modelling the permeability of random discontinuous carbon fibre preforms (2020)
Journal Article

A force-directed algorithm was developed to create representative geometrical models of fibre distributions in Directed Carbon Fibre Preforms (DCFP). Local permeability values were calculated for the preform models depending on the local fibre orient... Read More about Modelling the permeability of random discontinuous carbon fibre preforms.

Simulation of the forming process for curved composite sandwich panels (2019)
Journal Article

© 2019, The Author(s). For affordable high-volume manufacture of sandwich panels with complex curvature and varying thickness, fabric skins and a core structure are simultaneously press-formed using a set of matched tools. A finite-element-based proc... Read More about Simulation of the forming process for curved composite sandwich panels.

Characterisation of tack for uni-directional prepreg tape employing a continuous application-and-peel test method (2018)
Journal Article

Employing a test method with coupled application and peel phases, tack was characterised for a UD prepreg tape. Different aspects of tack were explored by varying test parameters and material condition. In addition, different surface combinations wer... Read More about Characterisation of tack for uni-directional prepreg tape employing a continuous application-and-peel test method.

Optimisation of local in-plane constraining forces in double diaphragm forming (2018)
Journal Article

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Rigid blocks (risers) were introduced in the double diaphragm forming (DDF) process to change the local in-plane strain distribution in the diaphragms, aimed at reducing wrinkling defects in the production of fabric preforms. A tw... Read More about Optimisation of local in-plane constraining forces in double diaphragm forming.

Simulation and validation of injection-compression filling stage of liquid moulding with fast curing resins (2018)
Journal Article

Very short manufacture cycle times are required if continuous carbon fibre and epoxy composite components are to be economically viable solutions for high volume composite production for the automotive industry. Here, a manufacturing process variant... Read More about Simulation and validation of injection-compression filling stage of liquid moulding with fast curing resins.

Frictional behaviour of non-crimp fabrics (NCFs) in contact with a forming tool (2018)
Journal Article

Microscopic observation and analysis are used to examine the role that contact conditions play in determining the frictional behaviour of non-crimp fabrics (NCFs). The true fibre contact length is measured over a range of normal pressures. For the NC... Read More about Frictional behaviour of non-crimp fabrics (NCFs) in contact with a forming tool.

A water-soluble core material for manufacturing hollow composite sections (2017)
Journal Article

This paper presents the development of a low-cost water-soluble core material, which is suitable for producing hollow composite structures via high pressure moulding processes, such as compression moulding and resin transfer moulding. The bulk materi... Read More about A water-soluble core material for manufacturing hollow composite sections.

Long discontinuous carbon fibre/polypropylene composites for high volume structural applications (2017)
Journal Article

A processing route is presented to manufacture discontinuous carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene (CF.PP) composites, using much longer fibre lengths (25mm) and higher volume fractions (up to 45%) than previously reported in the literature. Carbon f... Read More about Long discontinuous carbon fibre/polypropylene composites for high volume structural applications.

Double diaphragm forming simulation for complex composite structures (2017)
Journal Article

A finite element (FE) model has been developed to simulate the double diaphragm forming (DDF) process, to identify potential defects when forming complex 3D preforms from 2D biaxial non-crimp fabric plies. Three different metrics have been introduced... Read More about Double diaphragm forming simulation for complex composite structures.

Compression moulding of composites with hybrid fibre architectures (2016)
Journal Article

Advanced Sheet Moulding Compounds (ASMC) and unidirectional (UD) prepregs have been co-compression moulded to form a hybrid composite material. In-mould flow influences the UD fibre architecture in two ways. When UD fibres are aligned transversely to... Read More about Compression moulding of composites with hybrid fibre architectures.