Draping Optimisation Software for Dry Composite Preform Manufacturing

Abstract

Hand lay-up draping of textile reinforcements is widely used for manufacturing polymer-matrix composite parts by liquid moulding, as it enables the production of good-quality complex parts with the limited resources typically available for small-volume projects. Implementation of hand lay-up draping presents challenges in ensuring cost-effective and consistent manufacturing. Procedures for the design of composite parts and their manufacturing processes require concurrent analysis of part geometry and manufacturing operations. The capability to define in advance the reinforcement, textile patterns, and the sequence of manual draping operations is critical to reducing costs and maximising reproducibility in production. Whilst draping is recognized as a complex sequential task, little attention has been given to identifying a superior draping route by generating and evaluating alternative draping sequences. Instead, trial-and-error remains the industrial norm. In this work, hand lay-up draping is modelled as a sequence of decisions, where each draping step consists in placing a single Base Surface BaS and requires a specific amount of strain energy imparted to the fabric reinforcement stack. The total strain energy is defined as the sum of contributions from different deformation modes, with an additional term accounting for statistical variability in material behaviour. Based on this formulation, different approaches for optimising draping cost and quality are implemented, and the effects of sequence parameters are quantified using data extracted from pre-existing databases. As a final product, a software tool generates draping sequences, a 3D visual guide, wrinkle warnings, and darting recommendations for the fabric pattern.