Design, Analysis and Manufacturing of Tow-Steered Composite Shells Using Fiber Placement

A sub-scale advanced composite shell design is evaluated to determine its potential for use on a future aircraft fuselage. Two composite shells with the same nominal 8-ply [?45/?]s layup are evaluated, where ? indicates a tow-steered ply. To build this shell, a fiber placement machine is used to steer unidirectional prepreg tows as they are placed around the circumference of a 17-inch diameter right circular cylinder. The fiber orientation angle varies continuously from 10 degrees (with respect to the shell axis of revolution) at the crown, to 45 degrees on the side, and back to 10 degrees on the keel. All 24 tows are placed at each point on every fiber path in one structure designated as the shell with overlaps. The resulting pattern of tow overlaps causes the laminate thickness to vary between 8 and 16 plies. The second shell without tow overlaps uses the capability of the fiber placement machine to cut and add tows at any point along the fiber paths to fabricate a shell with a nearly uniform 8-ply laminate thickness. Static stiffness and buckling loads of shells with tow-steered layups are compared with the performance of a baseline quasi-isotropic shell using both finite element analyses and classical strength of materials theory. These tailored, tow-steered shells were then were designed and built at the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing - Louisiana Partnership under a joint NASA-industry collaborative effort. The shells were fabricated from unidirectional IM7/8552 graphite-epoxy pre-preg slit tape material placed on a constant-diameter mandrel. An overview of the detailed design and manufacturing processes for these shells is presented, and issues encountered during their design, analysis, fabrication and post-cure evaluation are presented and discussed. Future plans for structural testing and analyses of the shells are also discussed.