DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR THERMOPLASTIC WELDED JOINTS IN AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS - A HOLISTIC APPROACH FROM PROCESS TECHNOLOGY TO SIMULATION

Developing forms of mobility, such as Urban Air Mobility and Advanced Air Mobility, raise the need for enhanced composite joining technologies [28] to satisfy the high demand for lightweight composite components. This research aims to detect relevant welding parameter and combine the findings from processing, testing and simulation in design guidelines to enable an efficient product development. With this paper, promising and established fusion bonding techniques, specifically autoclave co-consolidation, induction and resistance welding, a finite element simulation approach to predict the thermoplastic composite weld performance, an overview of the required testing procedures to determine the needed simulation input parameter, as well as an outlook to the further research proceeding is given.
First research and results are concluding that following design parameter are influencing the weld performance: material, welding area, welding process and process parameter (e.g. heating mechanism, consolidation, temperature distribution), adherend layup, additional polymer plies in the welding zone, fiber orientation in interface layer of the adherends.