Process-induced deformation of composite T-stiffener structures

Composite T-stiffener structures are widely used structural elements in weight sensitive structural, aerospace and marine applications for the purpose of weight reduction. A study on the process-induced deformation of composite T-stiffener structures is presented in this paper. The deformation was calculated numerically by Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and the resulting displacements show that the deformation can be represented by a single angular displacement: the spring-in of the skin. A parametric study was conducted by Design of Experiments (DOE) and FEA to investigate the influence of design parameters on the spring-in of the skin. It is shown that the spring-in of the skin increases with the radius and the bonding length, and decreases with the fiber volume fraction.