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Fiber Beads: Development of a numerical method for the synthesis of fiber-reinforced bead patterns

Subject Area Lightweight Construction, Textile Technology
Engineering Design, Machine Elements, Product Development
Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
Term from 2019 to 2025
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 431606085
 
Final Report Year 2024

Final Report Abstract

In the DFG research project "Fiber Beads", the integration of hybrid material beads in sheet metal components was investigated as a method for lightweight design applications. This is achieved by a local integration of unidirectional, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (UD-CFRP) on the top flange area of the beads. The aim was to further increase the component stiffness in relation to the component mass and to improve manufacturing flexibility compared to established strategies for bead insertion. For a demonstrator component, the design and experimental implementation of a multi-stage manufacturing process chain was realized. In addition, a numerical optimization tool was developed for component design. The manufacturing process chain was designed with a focus on its applicability in an industrial environment. It consists of the steps of sheet metal forming, surface pre-treatment and surface structuring in combination with the application and curing of the UD-CFRP reinforcement patches. Active tool elements additively manufactured from an elastomer material were investigated for the forming of adapted bead cross-sections. Sandblasting and laser structuring were implemented as surface structuring methods characterized by short process times. Robot-based Automated Fiber Placement (AFP), a method suitable for high-volume production due to a high degree of automation, was selected for the attachment of the reinforcement patches. To support the product development process, a computer-aided optimization method was developed by which the optimal position and the local degree of reinforcement for stiffness maximization can be determined for specific load cases. For this purpose, a substitute model was developed for robust optimization based on a detailed model from a deep-drawing simulation, which uses material parameter sets to map different degrees of reinforcement. This allows a sufficiently similar structural-mechanical behavior to be mapped. Using the implemented algorithm, the assignment of the parameter sets can be adjusted iteratively in order to determine a stiffness-optimized reinforcement pattern. In an extension of the optimization method, a procedure for determining a basic component with load case-specific variants was developed. By placing the reinforcement in the top flange area of the beads, a significant increase in the area moment of inertia and the bending stiffness can be achieved applying a small amount of UD-CFRP. In addition, the unidirectional fiber orientation allows to take advantage of the anisotropic properties of the composite material. These aspects promote the most economical use of the UD-CFRP material for the flexible production of load-adapted product variants.

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