IDENTIFYING MARCELLING PARAMETERS OF THICK LINEAR TAPERED LAMINATES IN A CLOSED-MOLD CURING PROCESS

摘要

Marcel or layer waviness is a significant manufacturing defect found in thick, complex composites parts. Marcels can cause significant degradations in mechanical properties and fatigue life in primary structural aircraft applications. The mechanism of marcel formation remains largely applications. The objective of this study is to identify parameters that cause marcelling in thick linear tapered laminates. The parameters investigated are ply-directional dependency, effect of free boundary, effect of ply drop locations, effect of external pressure. Results indicate that ply drop locations and pressure gradients exerted by rigid tooling have significant effects on the formation of marcels. The results from this work will build towards development of an analytical model to describe marcel formation.