A NOVEL APPROACH FOR THE EVALUATION OF COMPOSITE SUITABILITY OF LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURES AT EARLY DESIGN STAGES
DS 77: Proceedings of the DESIGN 2014 13th International Design Conference
Year: 2014
Editor: Marjanovic Dorian, Storga Mario, Pavkovic Neven, Bojcetic Nenad
Author: Klein, D.; Witzgall ,C.; Wartzack, S.
Series: DESIGN
Section: DESIGN SUPPORT TOOLS
Page(s): 1093-1104
Abstract
Special characteristics like high stiffness and strength at low weight make Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) an interesting material for many different industries. However, the costs for carbon parts are very high compared to other lightweight materials and the material characteristics of CFRP can only be exploited if a suitable fibre orientation is chosen. Therefore, not every part is suitable for CFRP and the material choice should be considered carefully. Within this article a novel approach to evaluate the composite suitability of parts at the early design stage is shown.
Keywords: evaluation tool, lightweight design, early design stages