Continuous Tow Steering Around an Elliptical Cutout in a Composite Panel

Cutouts are widely used to accommodate windows, openings for access purposes, or fasteners in the primary structural parts of airplanes. The presence of cutouts in composite panels results in stress or strain concentrations, leading to potentially reduced load-carrying capacity. Steering tows around cutouts using emerging techniques in three-dimensional (3-D) printing and advanced fiber placement can potentially alleviate such problems. Continuous tow steering around cutouts also eliminates fiber cutting, thereby precluding ply-level 3-D stress concentration, which could otherwise lead to delamination-induced damage. This work examines stress and strain concentrations, using continuous tow steering, around a representative wingbox access hole. Buckling response under compression loading together with stress and strain concentrations under both tensile and compression loads are examined. A steered configuration shows a 26% improvement in buckling performance in comparison with the equivalent straight-fiber configuration. Under tensile loading, the maximum stress and strain concentration factors around the cutout are 29 and 32% larger, respectively, for straight-fiber orientations than those with steered tows around the cutout. For the compression loading condition, the direct strain of the panel with straight-fiber orientations was found to be three times that of steered-fiber trajectories in the vicinity of the cutout.

Automated summary

Cutouts in composite panels can lead to stress or strain concentrations, potentially reducing load-carrying capacity. Steering tows around cutouts using advanced techniques can alleviate such problems. Results show that a steered configuration improves buckling performance by 26% compared to straight-fiber configurations, with larger stress and strain concentrations in straight-fiber orientations under both tensile and compression loads.