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An efficient trans-scale and multi-stage approach for the deformation analysis of large-sized thin-walled composite structure in aircraft assembly

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Abstract

Large-sized thin-walled composite structure has been widely used in aircraft due to favorable strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness-to-weight ratio. The deformation has great influence on assembly quality of aircraft. So, deformation prediction is essential for guaranteeing the assembly quality. The structure with complicated geometry is difficult to discretize into regular quadrilateral or hexahedron. However, the above types of element are required when using the available conventional laminate shell and continuum laminate shell elements in the commercial software. To cope with this issue, an efficient trans-scale and multi-stage approach is proposed to predict deformation of large-sized thin-walled composite structure in this paper. Firstly, the large-sized composite is divided into several sub-regions based on its lay-ups. Multi-scale homogenizations were adopted to compute the macroscale material properties of each sub-region. Then, deformation analysis on the homogenized model is conducted. During simulation, micro-stress distribution in each element is investigated by stress projection. Damage analysis was conducted with failure criteria. An assembly experiment was conducted to validate the proposed model. The numerical results are in agreement with the experiment. Deformation behaviors of composite panel under different working pressures of 0.03 MPa and 0.09 MPa are evaluated.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52035011) and Kaifu Zhang is in charge of this project. And this study was also funded by the Basic Scientific Research of China (No. JCKY2019205B002) and Kaifu Zhang is in charge of this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Chinan Liu, Hui Cheng, Kaifu Zhang, Yuan Li, Biao Liang & Bin Luo

  2. AVIC Xi’an Aircraft Industry Group Company LTD, Xi’an 710089, China

    Anan Zhao & Kunpeng Du

Authors
  1. Chinan Liu
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  2. Hui Cheng
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  3. Kaifu Zhang
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  4. Yuan Li
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  5. Anan Zhao
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  6. Kunpeng Du
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  7. Biao Liang
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  8. Bin Luo
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The theoretical method is proposed by Chinan Liu and Hui Cheng. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Chinan Liu. The experimental site and measuring instruments were provided by Anan Zhao and Kunpeng Du. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hui Cheng or Kaifu Zhang.

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All of the authors have reviewed the final version of the manuscript and approve it for publication. We claim that none of the material in the paper has been published or is under consideration for publication elsewhere.

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Liu, C., Cheng, H., Zhang, K. et al. An efficient trans-scale and multi-stage approach for the deformation analysis of large-sized thin-walled composite structure in aircraft assembly. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 120, 5697–5713 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09110-6

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