Modeling and experimental validation of the contact characteristics for laying during automated fiber placement

In this paper, a theoretical model of the contact characteristics for layers on irregular surfaces is established by analyzing the contact deformation and slip ratio at the placement path points. Based on this model, a numerical algorithm for calculating the contact characteristics at any path point is proposed. The normal stress field, tangential stress field, and contact status of the contact area at four path points on the double-curved surface mold are obtained using the algorithm and verified through experiments. The results indicate that the model can be used to predict the contact characteristics at any placement path point, and the possible defects at points P3 and P4 are initially identified by analyzing the contact characteristics. In addition, compared to the 8-h computational time required for simulation calculation, this numerical algorithm takes only 20 ms to compute, which shows that the developed model has greatly reduced the calculation time.