Composite Aerospace Structures Shape Distortion during All Stages of Vacuum Infusion Production

The main reason of the deformations of aggregate aerodynamic surfaces could be tool deformation under its own weight and thermoelastic deformations of the infusion tool system. Resin polymerization and form fixation take place in the thermal chamber at 200 °C, with subsequent cooling. For modelling the stress-strain state of heated infusion tool that is made of materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion, the static structural module of the ANSYS system is used. Results of this analysis are displacement and stress fields, applied in mesh nodes. For the next cooling analysis the geometry of the infusion tool is used as an initial geometry, that was deformed in heating process. This is made by the means of APDL commands and Finite element modeler modules. Consequently, as the results of ANSYS analysis the module of impedance during full manufacturing process was received. The results were imported to MATLAB system for analysis. In the MATLAB system the component-wise addition of displacement fields of heating and cooling processes and an estimation of maximum displacement and visualization of the results are carried out. This method, used for the analysis of large scale aggregates of the production of aviation structures using vacuum infusion methods, helps to compare the accuracy of the theoretical contour of airfoils replication using different frame materials - steel and composite material during its full manufacturing process. Recommendations for the preferred infusion tool manufacturing, including frame, from composite materials, similar to the coefficient of thermal expansion of the material molded part was given. The received recommendations are considered in case of infusion tool production- its frame was made of composite material.