Design Space Interrogation for New C-Ply Laminate Architectures

Spread tow Non-Crimp Fabric (NCF) materials, e.g. C-PlyTM , are now available in a range of areal weights and ply architectures, including 0/45, 0/-45, 45/-45 and 0/90, which correspond to the standard ply orientations employed in traditional UD material lay-ups. The benefit of NCF material is generally associated with increased deposition rate, but this advantage may be offset by reduced design freedoms when a specific form of mechanical coupling behaviour is required, ply terminations must also be introduced and thermal warping distortion eliminated. This article investigates the extent to which new NCF architectures, based on 0/45, 0/-45, 45/-45 and 0/90 NCF can be tailored to achieve warp free tapered laminates without the need for deposition with off axis alignment, and thus avoid ply discontinuities. Interrogation of the available lamination parameter design space is used to demonstrate the effect of applying ply termination constraints. Finally, buckling factor contours are mapped onto the lamination parameter design space to assess the bounds, under compression and shear loading, for infinitely long simply supported plates