Modeling and impact analysis on contact characteristic of the compaction roller for composite automated placement

Composite automated placement shows great potential for efficient manufacturing of large aviation components. In order to understand the effect of the contact between the compaction roller and the fiber/tape on the layup quality, it is necessary to study the contact characteristic of the compaction roller and the morphological change of the prepreg under the compaction roller. The contact of the compaction roller is divided into the static and dynamic contact. For the static contact, the contact model is simplified to a roller compaction on an elastic body with curved surfaces, and it is developed based on the elastic contact theory. On the contrary, a dynamic contact model is presented by simplifying the contact areas as idealized rectangular elements with identically sized elements. Due to the compaction roller exerting pressure on the prepreg, the morphology of the prepreg will change with different processing parameters. The deformation model of the prepreg is determined as the resin flows through a porous network of fibers by creep theory. A series of experiments had been conducted to verify feasibility and accuracy of the developed models. Results demonstrate that these models have good precision.