Resistance welding of thermoplastic composites skin/stringer joints

An experimental investigation of resistance welding of APC-2/AS4 PEEK/carbon fibre composite using a stainless steel mesh heating element is presented. A special specimen geometry, the skin/stringer configuration, was used to represent a typical reinforced aerospace structural joint. The specimens consisted of a flange, representing a stringer or frame, welded onto a skin laminate. The effects of the welding parameters such as the input power level and clamping distance on the weld quality and performance were investigated. The welding parameters were optimised using short beam shear tests, ultrasonic C-scan inspection and optical microscopy. The mechanical performance of the resistance-welded skin/stringer configuration was investigated using three- and four-point bending tests and the failure mechanisms were characterised by optical and scanning electron microscopy. Two methods were used to reduce the stress concentration at the flange tip. The first method was to machine a 20° taper angle at the edge of the flange and the second one was to create a resin fillet at the flange tip. No mechanical performance improvement was obtained with the resin fillet method but the taper angle method showed 25% mechanical performance improvement when the taper angles were machined after the welding operation.     

碳纤维/聚苯硫醚热塑性复合材料电阻焊接工艺

本文针对航空器结构用碳纤维/聚苯硫醚(CF/PPS)复合材料为研究对象，开展电阻焊接工艺研究；利用CF/PPS复合材料混编织物作为电阻元件，成功制备了CF/PPS复合材料层板电阻焊接接头；重点利用Taguchi方法和方差分析获取CF/PPS复合材料层板电阻焊接最佳工艺参数(电流为12 A，压力为1.5 MPa，时间为30 min)及各参数对焊接接头剪切强度的贡献(电流为83.37%，压力为9.55%，时间为6.02%)。最佳焊接工艺参数焊接的接头单搭接剪切强度约为17.88 MPa；同时，对最佳参数焊接试样(H-LSS)和较低剪切强度试样(L-LSS)的焊接接头截面和剪切失效断口形貌进行了观察和分析。结果表明:H-LSS试样的焊缝区域树脂填充和浸润良好，且主要剪切失效形式为层间剪切失效，即为纤维与树脂基体脱黏及CF/PPS织物复合材料断裂混合失效；L-LSS试样的焊缝区域树脂填充和浸润较差，存在较多空隙，且剪切失效形式为焊缝界面脱黏失效。      

Influence of specimen type and reinforcement on measured tension–tension fatigue life of unidirectional GFRP laminates

It is well known that standardised tension–tension fatigue test specimens of unidirectional (UD) glass-fibre-reinforced plastics (GFRP) laminates tend to fail at end tabs. The true fatigue life is then underestimated. The first objective of this study was to find for UD GFRP laminates a test specimen that fails in the gauge section. The second objective was to compare fatigue performance of two laminates, one having a newly developed UD powder-bound fabric as a reinforcement and the other having a quasi-UD stitched non-crimp fabric as a reinforcement. In the first phase, a rectangular specimen in accordance with the ISO 527-5 standard and two slightly different dog-bone shaped specimens were evaluated by means of finite element modelling. Subsequent comparative fatigue tests were performed for the laminates with the three specimen types. The results showed that the test specimen type has a significant effect on the failure mode and measured fatigue life of the laminates. A significantly higher fatigue life was measured for the laminate with the powder-bound fabric reinforcement when compared to the laminate with the stitched reinforcement.     

Biaxiale Ermüdung reibrührgeschweißter Strukturelemente

Biaxial fatigue of friction stir welded stiffened panels Within the framework of the European WelAir project, cruciform specimens made from stiffening FSW overlap joints were fatigued in the DLR biaxial test rig. To resemble the loading situation of pressurized fuselage structures, proportional loading without any phase shift, but with different load ratios λ between the loading components in both directions was applied.Natural crack initiation and subsequent crack growth were governed by the stiffness gradient caused by introducing the stringer. Cracks initiated and propagated at run‐in and run‐out locations in a direction perpendicular to the weld seam. The shortest fatigue life was observed for uniaxial loading in welding direction (λ = 0). An additional stress component perpendicular to the joint line (λ > 0) resulted in a higher number of cycles to failure. Similar to single stringer panels, increasing the load ratio also increased the number of cycles to failure for FSW clip‐stringer structural members, but additionally gives a different location of the fatal crack.     

Fatigue response of APC-2 composite laminates at elevated temperatures

The response of thermoplastic AS-4/PEEK composite laminates of two lay-ups, such as cross-ply and quasi-isotropy, subjected to tension–tension (T–T) fatigue loading at elevated temperatures was investigated. It is found that the ultimate strength of cross-ply laminate is higher than that of quasi-isotropic laminate at various temperatures, so does the fatigue strength. However, the slope of normalized stress vs. cycles curves in the quasi-isotropic laminates is higher than that of the cross-ply laminates at elevated temperatures. Finally, the simple semi-empirical predictive models in statistical analysis and multiple regressions are proposed and provided for design and application purposes.     

Influence of the interface ply orientation on the fatigue behaviour of bonded joints in composite materials

The paper deals with the study of the fatigue behaviour of bonded joints in composite materials. The influence of the orientation of the composite layer at the adhesive–adherend interface is investigated on single lap joints prepared by carbon fabric/epoxy laminates bonded together with a two-part epoxy adhesive. Different laminate lay-ups ([45/0₂]_s and [45₂/0]_s), overlap lengths (20 and 40 mm) and corner geometry of bonded area (square edge and fillet, respectively) were investigated under tension–tension fatigue. Particular attention was devoted to the analysis of the fatigue damage evolution to identify initiation and subsequent growth of cracks. A previous model developed by the authors, for the prediction of the fatigue life of bonded joints as the sum of an initiation and propagation phase, was successfully applied to summarise the new data.     

On the weld strength of in situ tape placed reinforcements on weave reinforced structures

Unidirectionally reinforced thermoplastic tapes were welded onto woven fabric reinforced laminates using a laser assisted tape placement process. A mandrel peel setup was used to quantify the interfacial fracture toughness between the tape and the laminate as a measure for weld strength. The tape placement process was compared to a conventional press molding process in terms of interfacial fracture toughness. The tape placed specimens were found to outperform the press molded specimens. Additional experiments were performed to investigate the influence of the degree of crystallinity and the process induced weld interface on the measured fracture toughness.     

Investigation into Z-Pin Reinforced Composite Skin/Stiffener Debond under Monotonic and Cyclic Bending

Skin/stiffener debonding has been a longstanding concern for the users of stiffened composite panels in long-term service. Z-pinning technology is an emerging solution to reinforce the composite assembly joints. This work experimentally characterizes the progressive debonding of Z-pinned skin/stiffener interface with the skin under static bend loading. The three-stage failure process is identified as: flange edge debonding, pin/laminate debonding, and ultimate structural failure. Three different distribution patterns were compared in terms of the static debonding properties revealed the affirmative fact that locating pins in high normal stress regions, that is close to the flange edges in skin/stiffener structures, is more beneficial to utilize the full potential of Z-pinning reinforcement. The unit strip FE model was developed and demonstrated effective to analysis the effect of Z-pin distribution on the ultimate debond load. On the other hand, the evolution of fatigue cracks at Z-pinned skin/flange interface was investigated with a series of displacement-controlled fatigue bending tests and microscopic observations. Results show that Z-pinning postpones crack initiations at low displacement levels, and the remarkable crack-arresting function of pins enables the structure a prolonged fatigue life. However, pins become less effective when the maximum displacement exceeds the crack initiation level due to gradually pullout of pins.     

Simulation of Low Velocity Impact Induced Inter- and Intra-Laminar Damage of Composite Beams Based on XFEM

In this paper, the Inter-Fiber Fracture (IFF) criterion of Puck failure theory based on the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) was implemented in ABAQUS code to predict the intra-laminar crack initiation of unidirectional (UD) composite laminate. The transverse crack path in the matrix can be simulated accurately by the presented method. After the crack initiation, the propagation of the crack is simulated by Cohesive Zoom Model (CZM), in which the displacement discontinuities and stress concentration caused by matrix crack is introduced into the finite element (FE) model. Combined with the usage of the enriched element interface, which can be used to simulate the inter-laminar delamination crack, the Low Velocity Impact (LVI) induced damage of UD composite laminate beam with a typical stacking of composite laminates [0₅/90₃]_S is studied. A complete crack initiation and propagation process was simulated and the numerical results obtained by the XFEM are consistent with the experimental results.     

复合材料缝编肋片的分析

为了提高复合材料机翼的整体强度和刚度, 降低制造成本, 机翼的主要结构件采用缝编技术。肋片由肋腹板、缘条组成, 它是由整块缝编层合板剪裁加工制成。肋水平缘条和垂直缘条分别缝纫于蒙皮及桁腹板上, 桁缘条也缝纫于蒙皮上。采RTM 工艺成型。当在肋腹板方向施加拉力后, 肋水平缘条和蒙皮之间存在着剪应力, 引起层合板的分层, 肋垂直缘条和桁腹板之间存在着拉应力, 引起它们之间的撕裂。采用了二维和三维有限元混合模型进行分析, 获得了肋水平缘条与蒙皮、以及肋垂直缘条与桁腹板交界面上的应力分布, 并由试验研究验证了分析计算的正确性。      

Failure analysis of quasi-isotropic CFRP laminates under high strain rate compression loading

Dynamic compressive strength of quasi-isotropic fiber composite is investigated experimentally and also numerically simulated. In-plane compression tests at strain rates around 400/s quasi-isotropic laminates were performed using the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB). The material system used was Texipreg^® HS160 REM, comprising high strength unidirectional carbon fiber and epoxy resin. The dynamic strength of quasi-isotropic laminates exhibits a considerable increase when compared to the static values. The finite-element model used ABAQUS™ three-dimensional solid elements C3D8I with 8 nodes and user-defined interface finite elements with 8 nodes [Gonçalves JPM, de Moura MFSF, de Castro PMST, Marques AT. Interface element including point-to-surface constraints for three-dimensional problems with damage propagation. Eng Comp: Int J Comput Aided Eng Software 2000;17(1):28–47; de Moura MFSF, Pereira AB, de Morais AB. Influence of intralaminar cracking on the apparent interlaminar mode I fracture toughness of cross-ply laminates. Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct 2004;27(9):759–66.]. These interface elements which connect the three-dimensional solid elements modeling the composite layers, include a cohesive damage model allowing the simulation of delamination initiation and propagation. Hence the present model assumes that the phenomenon of failure under these conditions is mainly dictated by interface delamination. This is supported by experimental tests which showed that all quasi-isotropic laminates split into several almost intact sublaminates. The model compares very well with experimental results, confirming the formulated hypothesis that the internal layer damage does not markedly contribute to the quasi-isotropic laminate failure.     

湿热环境对碳纤维增强聚苯硫醚层合板感应焊接接头性能的影响

以碳纤维增强聚苯硫醚(Carbon fiber reinforced polyphenylene sulfide, CF/PPS)复合材料层合板为研究对象,采用感应焊接方法对CF/PPS层板进行了焊接,重点研究了湿热环境对CF/PPS层板焊接接头性能的影响,实验结果表明:吸湿前后PPS树脂未发生化学变化;室温环境下,随着吸湿时间的增加,焊接接头剪切强度逐渐下降,与干态焊接接头相比分别降低了15%、18%、23%、32%和38%,不锈钢网-树脂基体-碳纤维界面处的湿应力不断增大,削弱了焊接接头界面的结合性能,影响了焊接接头的失效形式;120℃环境下,不同吸湿时间焊接接头剪切强度的下降率分别为12%、15%、22%、37%和44%,高温高湿使不锈钢网-树脂基体-碳纤维界面处热应力和湿应力增大,加剧了界面结合的损伤,界面脱粘成为焊接接头主要的失效形式。      

Enhanced delamination initiation stress and monitoring sensitivity of quasi-isotropic laminates under in-plane tension by interleaving with CNT buckypaper

Delamination initiation and the corresponding in-situ monitoring method have been investigated for a T300/epoxy quasi-isotropic laminate. Interfaces of the laminate, in which the delamination tends to occur under in-plane tensile load, have been interleaved with porous carbon nanotube (CNT) buckypapers. Both sectional loading to the delamination initiation and full tension to the fracture of specimens were performed to evaluate the reinforced effect and self-sensing properties of the CNT buckypapers on the laminates. As expected, enhanced delamination initiation stress level was obtained, improved by 7.7% compared with that of the base laminate. Simultaneously, electrical resistance and acoustic emission (AE) responses of the laminates were also measured and used to determine the initiation of delamination. The tests have exhibited that the CNT buckypapers have significant influence on the resistance change of the laminate, showing potential to be used as a detector. This study has preliminarily demonstrated that the CNT buckypapers can serve as both sensing and strengthening constituent.     

Fatigue strength of fillet‐welded joints at subzero temperatures

Ships and offshore structures may be operated in areas with seasonal freezing temperatures and extreme environmental conditions. While current standards state that attention should be given to the validity of fatigue design curves at subzero temperatures, studies on fatigue strength of structural steel at subzero temperatures are scarce. This study addresses the issue by analysing the fatigue strength of welded steel joints under subzero temperatures. Although critical weld details in large welded structures are mostly fillet‐welded joints, most published data are based on fatigue crack growth rate specimens cut out of butt‐welded joints. This study analyses fillet‐welded specimens at ?20°C and ?50°C against controls at room temperature. Significantly higher fatigue strength was measured in comparison to estimates based on international standards and data from design codes even at temperatures far below the allowed service temperature based on fracture toughness results.     

Fatigue strength of steel beams with bracket plates welded to the tension flange

Fatigue tests under three-point bending were carried out on mild steel beams with bracket plates welded to the tension flange. The variables considered were the beam and bracket designs and the position of bracket connected. Particular attention was paid to the effect of configuration in the bracket-ends, which was varied in two distinct cases; in one the taper of the bracket end was straight and in the other it was rounded in three different ways. A good SN correlation was obtained by plotting the results in terms of bending stress range at the location of failure in the flange. This followed from the fact that the propagation of cracks across the flange exhausted the considerable part of fatigue life of beams. Thus the design details did not affect strongly the endurance of beams. However, the initial stage of cracking was sensitive to the types of bracket-ends. The fatigue crack associating with a straight bracket-end originated either from the weld toe on the flange at the bracket-to-flange junction or through the weldment, depending on the relative magnitude of two stresses suffering in the flange and in the bracket plate. The rounding of the bracket-ends prevented the occurrence of fracture through weld due to increase in the flexibility at the bracket-to-flange junction, but it did not improve the strength of crack initiation at the weld toe. It was suggested that the crack initiation of both fracture types in beams was possibly predicted from the results of comparative tests on plate specimens with longitudinal non-load-carrying fillet welds and with transverse load-carrying fillet welds.     

Fatigue residual strength of circular laminate graphite–epoxy composite plates damaged by transverse load

The research dealt with the relation between damage and tension–tension fatigue residual strength (FRS) in a quasi-isotropic carbon fibre reinforced epoxy resin laminate. The work was organized in two phases: during the first one, composite laminates were damaged by means of an out-of-plane quasi-static load that was supposed to simulate a low velocity impact; in the second phase, fatigue tests were performed on damaged and undamaged specimens obtained from the original composite laminates. During the quasi-static transverse loading phase, damage progression was monitored by means of acoustic emission (AE) technique. The measurement of the strain energy accumulated in the specimens and of the acoustic energy released by fracture events made it possible to estimate the amount of induced damage and evaluate the quasi-static residual tensile strength of the specimens. A probabilistic failure analysis of the fatigue data, reduced by the relative residual strength values, made it possible to relate the FRS of damaged specimens with the fatigue strength of undamaged ones.     

Gigacycle fatigue data sheets for advanced engineering materials

Gigacycle fatigue data sheets have been published since 1997 by the National Institute for Materials Science. They cover several areas such as high-cycle-number fatigue for high-strength steels and titanium alloys, the fatigue of welded joints, and high-temperature fatigue for advanced ferritic heat-resistant steels. Some unique testing machines are used to run the tests up to an extremely high number of cycles such as 10¹⁰ cycles. A characteristic of gigacycle fatigue failure is that it is initiated inside smooth specimens; the fatigue strength decreases with increasing cycle number and the fatigue limit disappears, although ordinary fatigue failure initiates from the surface of a smooth specimen and a fatigue limit appears. For welded joints, fatigue failure initiates from the notch root of the weld, because a large amount of stress is concentrated at the weld toe. The fatigue strength of welded joints has been obtained for up to 10⁸ cycles, which is an extremely high number of cycles for large welded joints. The project of producing gigacycle fatigue data sheets is still continuing and will take a few more years to complete.     

A notch stress intensity approach to assess the multiaxial fatigue strength of welded tube-to-flange joints subjected to combined loadings

Full penetration T butt weld joints between a tube and its flange are considered, subjected to pure bending, pure torsion and a combination of these loading modes. The model treats the weld toe like a sharp V‐notch, in which mode I and mode III stress distributions are combined to give an equivalent notch stress intensity factor (N‐SIF) and assess the high cycle fatigue strength of the welded joints. The N‐SIF‐based approach is then extended to low/medium cycle fatigue, considering fatigue curves for pure bending and pure torsion having the same slope or, alternatively, different slopes. The expression for the equivalent N‐SIF is justified on the basis of the variation of the deviatoric strain energy in a small volume of material surrounding the weld toe. The energy is averaged in a critical volume of radius R_C and given in closed form as a function of the mode I and mode III N‐SIFs. The value of R_C is explicitly referred to high cycle fatigue conditions, the material being modelled as isotropic and linear elastic. R_C is thought of as a material property, independent in principle of the nominal load ratio. To validate the proposal, several experimental data taken from the literature are re‐analysed. Such data were obtained by testing under pure bending, pure torsion and combined bending and torsion, welded joints made of fine‐grained Fe E 460 steel and of age‐hardened AlSi1MgMn aluminium alloy. Under high cycle fatigue conditions the critical radius R_C was found to be close to 0.40 mm for welded joints made of Fe E 460 steel and close to 0.10 mm for those made of AlSi1MgMn alloy. Under low/medium cycle fatigue, the expression for energy has been modified by using directly the experimental slopes of the pure bending and pure torsion fatigue curves.     

Fatigue crack initiation life estimation in a steel welded joint by the use of a two-scale damage model

This work deals with the fatigue behaviour of S355NL steel welded joints classically used in naval structures. The approach suggested here, in order to estimate the fatigue crack initiation life, can be split into two stages. First, stabilized stress–strain cycles are obtained in all points of the welded joint by a finite element analysis, taking constant or variable amplitude loadings into account. This calculation takes account of: base metal elastic–plastic behaviour, variable yield stress based on hardness measurements in various zones of the weld, local geometry at the weld toe and residual stresses if any. Second, if a fast elastic shakedown occurs, a two-scale damage model based on Lemaitre et al. 's work is used as a post-processor in order to estimate the fatigue crack initiation life. Material parameters for this model were identified from two Wöhler curves established for base metal. As a validation, four-point bending fatigue tests were carried out on welded specimens supplied by 'DCNS company'. Two load ratios were considered: 0.1 and 0.3. Residual stress measurements by X-ray diffraction completed this analysis. Comparisons between experimental and calculated fatigue lives are promising for the considered loadings. An exploitation of this method is planned for another welding process.     

How isotropic are quasi-isotropic laminates

The concept of quasi-isotropic laminates is very well documented in literature. Essentially, the laminate consists of laminae with fibers at equal angular spacing. The theoretical analysis of these laminates, based on the laminate theory, suggests that the elastic properties of the laminate will be isotropic. It is obvious that the theory makes some simplifying assumptions and hence the question remains that if this laminate is not really isotropic then how much anisotropic is it? Presented here is the experimental determination of the elastic modulus of a quasi-isotropic laminate [0/45/−45/90]_S by tensile mechanical testing and corroborated by a newly developed automated ultrasonic Lamb wave measurement. The Lamb wave velocity measurement in frequency domain is used to estimate the in-plane elastic constants: elastic modulus and the Poisson's ratio, non-destructively. The ultrasonic method provides a non-invasive and non-damaging method for the measurement.