Hello,
I have a question about ply drop. I have received ply drop sequence from stress department to design a simple L Angle with 9 Plies on Lower Flange and 7 Plies on Web.
After satisfying all the sequence rules and everything, there is a possibilities of 4 ways to make the ply drop as shown in the attached figure.
But Which is most preferred design based on Stress and Manufacturing and in general composite design practice and Why?
Thank You.
If it was me and there were no other concerns other than ‘manufacturability’, I would put the ply drops as close to the non tool surface as possible: The reason being that you will have a higher probability of a better compacted laminate on a repeatable basis. ie, say you had the ply drop in option 1 and the subsequent layers were placed on top, (for example without debulking)the effect of a poorly placed layer or air bubble around the ply-drop would be magnified by the following layers. Probability of this happening when its closer to the bag surface is lower.
Again, this is assuming stress are happy with either way. Also, have you checked possible tolerance deviation (springback) with the four methods?