Tailored patch placement on a base load carrying laminate: A computational structural optimisation with experimental validation

Endless fibre reinforced polymer matrix composites show remarkable potential for substituting metal components in engineering applications. However, they require special designing and manufacturing capabilities to exploit their structural potential and to be affordable for mass production. Therefore, a procedure for the tailoring and the manufacturing of thermoplastic endless fibre reinforced components is needed and is presented in this work. The optimisation scheme to tailor a supporting layer on an existing base load carrying ground structure is implemented with an optimality based orientation optimisation and a gradient based density optimisation aiming for higher component stiffness. The procedure leads to truss-like structures with continuous fibre paths, which are transferred to a manufacturable component by Multi-Linearisation technique. In a patch placement cell, the structure is built up according to the Multi-Linearisation pattern and then evaluated on a component testing machine.