| Description | Fastener Free Assembly of Airframe Structure
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
at 3:30 PM Mechanical Engineering Building
(MEB) 238 Abstract: Thermoplastic polymer-based composites offer a wide range of advantages over thermoset materials.
Their ability to melt and re-solidify offers fusion bonding of filaments, sheets, parts and components into full structures,
eliminating the need for fasteners or adhesives. The principle of fusion bonding involves two parts melted at their
respective contact surfaces, at or above a specific temperature for a minimum time, and application of pressure during
welding and cooling to allow a cohesive bond to be formed. The quality of the cohesive bond is highly dependent on
temperature and pressure at the bonding zone, and time the temperature and pressure are sustained. Most
manufacturing techniques for thermoplastic composites rely on fusion bonding: in-situ lamination and consolidation
during Automated Fiber Placement, Compression Molding of Tailored Blanks, Variable Stiffness Layups based on tow
steering, and Overprinting. Together they offer the potential of Fastener Free Assembly of Airframe Structure. MFMS
focuses on experimental and computational research related to design and manufacture of composite thermoplastic
airframe structure. The seminar will address the different technologies being developed at the center: machines,
materials, processes and computational methods to support Fastener Free Assembly. Emphasis in the modelling part
of the seminar will be on induction welding, especially the heat generation and heat transfer elements. Other topics
addressed will be a multi-mesh approach to design-for-variable-stiffness and a hybrid layer-wise/shell FE approach for
strength evaluation of non-conventional laminates. Speaker Bio: Michel van Tooren is a Professor in Aerospace Systems Design and Structures at the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) of the University of South Carolina and SmartState Endowed Chair in the Center for Multifunctional Materials and Structures and has a BSc, MSc and PhD in Aerospace Engineering Before joining USC he worked for Fokker Aerostructures in the Netherlands as Manager New Concept
Development, responsible for the R&D department, the Engineering Tools and Methods department and the Product Development Process up to and including PDR. He combined this position in industry with a part-time appointment at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of the Delft University of Technology. Prior to that he worked ten years as a professor in Systems Integration Aircraft at the same University, building a group specialized in Aircraft Design, Flight Mechanics and Multi-disciplinary Design Optimization. He combined the research activities with a position in the management team of the faculty of Aerospace Engineering and vice dean. All this followed a previous
ten years of research, education and innovation in design of composite structures. His research focus at CEC is on design and manufacture of composites structures, especially thermoplastics. In addition, he serves as the Program Director Aerospace Engineering Studies for CEC. |
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