Laying-up method for non-planar composite components
A method for laying-up the tapes of a prepeg composite material in the 0° direction of a non-planar composite component on a suitable mold using an ATL machine includes the steps of: a) determining the trajectories of the tapes as modified trajectories of geodesic trajectories complying with the following conditions in their projections in an horizontal plane: that the curvature radius R 2 of their curved segments is bigger than a predetermined value R min ; that the gap G 2p between two contiguous tapes is comprised between 0 and a predetermined value G max ; and b) providing modified trajectories to the ATL machine. The invention also refers to a non-planar composite component such as an skin of an aircraft wing having the tapes in the 0° direction following trajectories complying with conditions described.
1. A method for laying-up the tapes of a prepeg composite material in the 0° direction of a non-planar composite component on a suitable mould using an automatic tape laying machine comprising steps of:
a) determining the trajectories of said tapes as modified trajectories of geodesic trajectories complying with the following conditions in their projections in an horizontal plane:
that the curvature radius R 2 , of their curved segments is bigger than a predetermined value R min ,
that the gap G 2p between two contiguous tapes is comprised between 0 and a predetermined value G max ;
b) providing said modified trajectories to said automatic tape laying machine.
2. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said step a) comprises the following sub-steps:
a1) projecting the geodesic trajectories corresponding to said tapes on an horizontal plane;
a2) modifying the horizontal projected trajectories for complying with the above-mentioned conditions;
a3) obtaining the modified trajectories on the corresponding laying-up surfaces by means of an intersection of said surfaces with a vertical plane by the modified horizontal trajectories.
3. A method according to claim 1 , wherein:
said predetermined value R min is 400 mm for a tape of a width of 300 mm;
said predetermined value G max is 3.5 mm.
4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein said component is the skin of an aircraft wing.