Hot-pressing of uncured metal-composite laminates: A numerical study on simultaneous deformation

The research focuses on the simultaneous deformation of uncured metal-composite laminates under the press forming process of a double-curved dome part. The study is designed to evaluate the influence of material type, inter-ply friction and clamping force by the use of a finite element modelling method. The result shows that the main failure mode for aluminium-based hybrid materials is metal cracking while prepreg buckling dominates the failure of stainless steel-based hybrid materials. The increase of clamping force contributes to the deformation of fibre reinforced prepreg layer and decrease the risk of prepreg buckling, but the simultaneous increase of plastic deformation tends to induce the failure of metal cracking. The variation of friction coefficient at the metal-prepreg interface affects the inter-ply sliding displacement during the forming process. This work provides a numerical method on the material selection and process parameter optimisation where compatible deformation of the individual layers can be achieved through its own mechanisms.