Method for representing and generating a flat pattern for a composite ply that folds over itself

摘要

Methods for generating a flat pattern for a composite ply. A method includes receiving a tool model and a ply coverage, wherein the ply coverage defines a plurality of plies, a fiber orientation for each of the plies, and a boundary for each of the plies, determining one or more subset regions on the tool model based on the boundaries from the ply coverage, creating a merged ply combining the plies and aligning the fiber orientations, defining staging instances of the merged ply for each ply covering a subset region, determining a laydown order of the staging instances, running a draping simulation using the laydown order to solve the staging instances, generating a flat pattern from the draping simulation, and storing the flat pattern of the composite ply.

主权项

1. A method for generating a flat pattern for a composite ply, the method performed by a data processing system and comprising:
receiving data defining a tool and a ply coverage, wherein the ply coverage defines a plurality of plies, a fiber orientation for each of the plies, and a boundary for each of the plies; determining one or more subset regions on the tool based on the boundaries from the ply coverage; creating at least one merged ply combining at least two of the plies and aligning the fiber orientations of the at least two of the plies; defining staging instances for each ply of the at least one merged ply which indicates the respective subset region that each respective ply covers such that the at least one merged ply is folded or is wrapped around a corner of the tool at the boundary between the at least two plies; determining a laydown order of the plies based on the staging instances; running a draping simulation using the laydown order to solve the staging instances, in which each ply of each staging instance is laid down at the respective subset region for each staging instance in the laydown order, which draping simulation takes into account thickness increase due to previously laid down plies; generating a flat pattern that defines a shape for cutting at least one composite ply corresponding to the at least one merged ply based on the draping simulation; and storing the flat pattern of the composite ply.