Nonlinear Buckling and Postbuckling Analysis of Tow-Steered Composite Cylinders with Cutouts

What is it about?

Tow-steered composites use curved fibers, rather than the usual straight fibers, to reinforce a plastic material. The ability to steer fibers creates opportunities to smoothly blend stiffness and strength across engineering structures and creates new opportunities for lightweight design. This paper describes the testing and analysis of a thin-walled cylinder with cutouts manufactured using tow-steered composites and loaded in axial compression. This is a common loading scenario, for example, for launch vehicle and satellite structures. The research shows that tow-steering can be used to steer load away from the cutouts---the weakest area of the structure---and therefore help in improving its performance.

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