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Optimization of Composite Material System and Lay-up to Achieve Minimum Weight Pressure Vessel

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Abstract

The use of composite pressure vessels particularly in the aerospace industry is escalating rapidly because of their superiority in directional strength and colossal weight advantage. The present work elucidates the procedure to optimize the lay-up for composite pressure vessel using finite element analysis and calculate the relative weight saving compared with the reference metallic pressure vessel. The determination of proper fiber orientation and laminate thickness is very important to decrease manufacturing difficulties and increase structural efficiency. In the present work different lay-up sequences for laminates including, cross-ply [0 m /90 n ] s , angle-ply [±θ] ns , [90/±θ] ns and [0/±θ] ns , are analyzed. The lay-up sequence, orientation and laminate thickness (number of layers) are optimized for three candidate composite materials S-glass/epoxy, Kevlar/epoxy and Carbon/epoxy. Finite element analysis of composite pressure vessel is performed by using commercial finite element code ANSYS and utilizing the capabilities of ANSYS Parametric Design Language and Design Optimization module to automate the process of optimization. For verification, a code is developed in MATLAB based on classical lamination theory; incorporating Tsai–Wu failure criterion for first-ply failure (FPF). The results of the MATLAB code shows its effectiveness in theoretical prediction of first-ply failure strengths of laminated composite pressure vessels and close agreement with the FEA results. The optimization results shows that for all the composite material systems considered, the angle-ply [±θ] ns is the optimum lay-up. For given fixed ply thickness the total thickness of laminate is obtained resulting in factor of safety slightly higher than two. Both Carbon/epoxy and Kevlar/Epoxy resulted in approximately same laminate thickness and considerable percentage of weight saving, but S-glass/epoxy resulted in weight increment.

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Acknowledgements

The support from Centre of Excellence in Science & Applied Technologies (CESAT), Pakistan is acknowledged. The first author was awarded Chinese Government Scholarship from China Scholarship Council (CSC) for his MS studies and is thankfully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Aerodynamic Design and Research, School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, People’s Republic of China

    Haris Hameed Mian & Gang Wang

  2. Laboratory of Engineering Simulation and Aerospace Computing, School of Mechanical, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, People’s Republic of China

    Uzair Ahmed Dar & Weihong Zhang

Authors
  1. Haris Hameed Mian
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  2. Gang Wang
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  3. Uzair Ahmed Dar
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  4. Weihong Zhang
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Correspondence to Haris Hameed Mian.

Appendices

Appendix A

Table 6 Material and Strength Properties for unidirectional composite
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Appendix B

Fig. 11
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Component Stress (Sx,Sy,Sxy) plot for optimized lay-ups

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Mian, H.H., Wang, G., Dar, U.A. et al. Optimization of Composite Material System and Lay-up to Achieve Minimum Weight Pressure Vessel. Appl Compos Mater 20, 873–889 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-012-9305-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-012-9305-4

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