Title: Automating Composite Design Through Knowledge Based Engineering Applications

Authors: Bruce E. Gabel

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/c.19.0776

Abstract: With the increased use for composite structure in commercial aircraft today, there is demand for automation of the design of composite parts to reduce the non-recurring cost and improve the quality and consistency of the designs. The use of traditional design productivity improvement techniques such as morphing template models do not lend themselves to the complex designs of composite parts. A new technique was developed that combines requirements inputs and master geometry through a custom designed application to automate the CAD design of tooling surfaces, ply geometry, and solid models. The technique breaks the part into discrete regions with the input file defining the number of regions, the requirements of the region, and the relationship of the region to the master geometry. This method supports parts of varying size and complexity. Additional design and manufacturing restrictions and best practices are embedded into the custom application ensuring the final parts conform, improving first pass quality. The time to generate a part was reduced from 8 hours manually to 5 minutes with automation. The reduction in time to design the parts allows for additional iterations of the design to be evaluated within a fixed schedule or reducing the overall aircraft design schedule. The technique has been proven effective on several part families and multiple aircraft programs.

References:

Conference: CAMX 2019

Publication Date: 2019/09/23

SKU: TP19-0776

Pages: 9

Price: $18.00