Engineering

Buckling

Materials science

Computer security

Plane (geometry)

RADIUS

Slipping

Accounting

Computer science

Wavelength

Business

Consolidation (business)

Mathematics

Wrinkle

Geometry

Composite material

Structural engineering

Optoelectronics

Composites Science and Technology

If carbon fibre layers are prevented from slipping over one another as they consolidate onto a non-trivial geometry, they can be particularly susceptible to wrinkling/buckling instabilities. A one dimensional model for out-of-plane ply wrinkling during consolidation over an external radius is presented. Critical conditions for the appearance of wrinkles provide manufacturing strategies to eliminate such defects. Predicted wrinkle wavelengths and critical wrinkling conditions show good agreement with wrinkle defects observed in a spar demonstrator.

Out-of-plane ply wrinkling defects during consolidation over an external radius