Volume 20, Issue 5, 2011

LETTER: SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS FOR THE SPRING-IN OF COMPOSITE SHELLS

Chensong Dong

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Tel.: +61 (8) 92669204; fax: +61 (8) 92662681; email:c.dong@curtin.edu.au

Received 23 June 2011; accepted 28 August 2011

ABSTRACT

Composite materials are a class of engineering materials widely used in a wide range of industries. Spring-in is a common dimensional variation of composite shells. It is well known that spring-in is dependent on many factors e.g. the constituent properties and coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). A sensitivity analysis on the spring-in is presented in this paper. The sensitivities of the spring-in to the constituent properties and CTE are studied by the Design of Experiments (DOE) and the Response Surface Method (RSM). It is shown that the spring-in is predominantly sensitive to the Poisson's ratio of the matrix and the transverse CTE of the fibres. The results can be used to estimate the uncertainty of the spring-in from the uncertainties of the constituent properties and CTE, which is potentially useful for the design of composite products with improved dimensional control.

Keywords:Composites; dimensional variation; spring-in; sensitivity analysis.