Experimental quality assessment of thermoplastic composite corner regions manufactured using laser-assisted tape placement

Over the past 25 years, interest in thermoplastic composites aircraft has steadily increased. Combining winding and laser-assisted tape placement is a promising method to manufacture structures using in-situ consolidation, as shown recently by manufacturing variable stiffness, unitized, integrated-stiffener wingbox at University of Limerick. The corner regions are critical point structure require in-depth characterization studies, for example unfolding L-shaped samples 4-point bend test. In this work, with radii varying from 2 10 mm were manufactured tested. Two parameters varied: rotational speed acceleration tool. Test data show that decreasing radius increases strength, but an optimum exists withstand maximum force/moment. addition, slowest deposition rate least head used during lead highest strength same radius.