Influence of Gradual Damage on the Structural Dynamic Behaviour of Composite Rotors: Experimental Investigations

Structural Damage Identification of Composite Rotors Based on Fully Connected Neural Networks and Convolutional Neural Networks

Damage identification of composite structures is a major ongoing challenge for a secure operational life-cycle due to the complex, gradual damage behaviour of composite materials. Especially for composite rotors in aero-engines and wind-turbines, a cost-intensive maintenance service has to be performed in order to avoid critical failure. A major advantage of composite structures is that they are able to safely operate after damage initiation and under ongoing damage propagation. Therefore, a robust, efficient diagnostic damage identification method would allow monitoring the damage process with intervention occurring only when necessary. This study investigates the structural vibration response of composite rotors by applying machine learning methods and the ability to identify, localise and quantify the present damage. To this end, multiple fully connected neural networks and convolutional neural networks were trained on vibration response spectra from damaged composite rotors with barely visible damage, mostly matrix cracks and local delaminations using dimensionality reduction and data augmentation. A databank containing 720 simulated test cases with different damage states is used as a basis for the generation of multiple data sets. The trained models are tested using k-fold cross validation and they are evaluated based on the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Convolutional neural networks perform slightly better providing a performance accuracy of up to 99.3% for the damage localisation and quantification.

Process-Induced Distortions Characterization of MBWK Fabric Reinforced Composite Helmet Shell

In order to characterize the process-induced distortions of 3D thin shell composites with complex shape, the multilayered biaxial weft knitted (MBWK) fabric reinforced high-performance composite helmet was selected as the research object, and the 3D laser scanning machine was used to scan the helmet surface, then the 3D scanning data was compared with the CAD model to evaluate the deformation. The results and discussion indicated that the conventional method was workable, but the speed of convergence was slow and the calculation results were easy to drop into local optimization. According to detailed analysis, a measurement method focusing on the principle of “Feature Distance” was developed. The measurement results shown that this method can not only give accurate results, but also reduce working procedure and greatly save the computing resources, which is proved to be a feasible approach for the deformation measurement foundation of 3D thin shell textile composites.

An Energy-Based Concept for Yielding of Multidirectional FRP Composite Structures Using a Mesoscale Lamina Damage Model

Composite structures are made of multidirectional (MD) fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite laminates, which fail due to multiple damages in matrix, interface, and fiber constituents at different scales. The yield point of a unidirectional FRP composite is assumed as the lamina strength limit representing the damage initiation phenomena, while yielding of MD composites in structural applications are not quantified due to the complexity of the sequence of damage evolutions in different laminas dependent on their angle and specification. This paper proposes a new method to identify the yield point of MD composite structures based on the evolution of the damage dissipation energy (DDE). Such a characteristic evolution curve is computed using a validated finite element model with a mesoscale damage-based constitutive model that accounts for different matrix and fiber failure modes in angle lamina. The yield point of composite structures is identified to correspond to a 5% increase in the initial slope of the DDE evolution curve. The yield points of three antisymmetric MD FRP composite structures under flexural loading conditions are established based on Hashin unidirectional (UD) criteria and the energy-based criterion. It is shown that the new energy concept provides a significantly larger safe limit of yield for MD composite structures compared to UD criteria, in which the accumulation of energy dissipated due to all damage modes is less than 5% of the fracture energy required for the structural rupture.

Bird-Strike Resistance of Composite Laminates with Different Materials

To obtain some basic laws for bird-strike resistance of composite materials in aeronautical application, the high-velocity impact behaviors of composite laminates with different materials were studied by numerical methods. The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and finite element method (FEM) coupling models were validated from various perspectives, and the numerical results were comparatively investigated. Results show that the different composite materials have relatively little effect on projectile deformations during the bird impact. However, the impact-damage distributions can be significantly different for different composite materials. The strength parameters and fracture energy parameters play different roles in different damage modes. Lastly, modal frequency was tentatively used to explain the damage behavior of the composite laminates, for it can manifest the mass and stiffness characteristics of a dynamic structure. The dynamic properties and strength properties jointly determine the impact-damage resistance of composite laminates under bird strike. Future optimization study can be considered from these two aspects.

A Continuum Damage Model for Intralaminar Progressive Failure Analysis of CFRP Laminates Based on the Modified Puck's Theory

A continuum damage model is proposed to predict the intralaminar progressive failure of CFRP laminates based on the modified Puck’s theory. Puck’s failure criteria, with consideration of the in situ strength effect, are employed to evaluate the onset of intralaminar failure including fiber fracture and inter-fiber fracture. After damage initiation, a bilinear constitutive relation is used to describe the damage evolution process. In strict accordance with Puck’s concept of action plane, the extent of damage is quantified by the damage variables defined in the fracture plane coordinate system, rather than the traditional material principal coordinate system. Theoretical and experimental evaluation of CFRP laminates under different loading conditions demonstrates the rationality and effectiveness of the proposed numerical model. The model has been successfully implemented in a finite element (FE) software to simulate the intralaminar progressive failure process of CFRP laminates. A good agreement between the experimental and numerical results demonstrates that the present model is capable of predicting the intralaminar failure of CFRP laminates.

A Sequence-Based Damage Identification Method for Composite Rotors by Applying the Kullback-Leibler Divergence, a Two-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test and a Statistical Hidden Markov Model

Composite structures undergo a gradual damage evolution from initial inter-fibre cracks to extended damage up to failure. However, most composites could remain in service despite the existence of damage. Prerequisite for a service extension is a reliable and component-specific damage identification. Therefore, a vibration-based damage identification method is presented that takes into consideration the gradual damage behaviour and the resulting changes of the structural dynamic behaviour of composite rotors. These changes are transformed into a sequence of distinct states and used as an input database for three diagnostic models, based on the Kullback–Leibler divergence, the two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and a statistical hidden Markov model. To identify the present damage state based on the damage-dependent modal properties, a sequence-based diagnostic system has been developed, which estimates the similarity between the present unclassified sequence and obtained sequences of damage-dependent vibration responses. The diagnostic performance evaluation delivers promising results for the further development of the proposed diagnostic method.

Modal Identification of Output-Only Systems of Composite Discs Using Zernike Modes and MAC

The analysis of the structural dynamic behaviour of composite rotor–discs by a valid description of the eigenfrequencies and mode shapes can provide significant information for action-taking before a failure occurs. Specifically, vibration-based diagnostic methods, which are able to take into consideration the interdependencies and sequential changes of the modal properties could benefit from such an analysis. Here, on the example of composite rotors, a correlation method for experimentally determined mode shapes is developed. For this purpose the Zernike polynomials are used to enhance the identification of mode shapes. Furthermore, the modal assurance criterion (MAC) in combination with the frequency response criterion and a data processing approach are applied in order to characterize changing modal properties of composite rotors. In addition, the developed algorithms can be further extended in order to simplify the experimental evaluation of the complex dynamic behaviour of composite structures.

Design and Testing of a Co-Rotating Vibration Excitation System

A vibration excitation system (VES) in a form of an active coupling is proposed, designed and manufactured. The system is equipped with a set of piezoelectric stack actuators uniformly distributed around the rotor axis and positioned parallel to each other. The actuator arrangement allows an axial displacement of the coupling halves as well as their rotation about any transverse axis. Through the application of the VES an aimed vibration excitation is realised in a co-rotating coordinate system, which enables a non-invasive and precise modal analysis of rotating components. As an example, the VES is applied for the characterisation of the structural dynamic behaviour of a generic steel rotor at different rotational speeds. The first results are promising for both stationary and rotating conditions.

Influence of Gradual Damage on the Structural Dynamic Behaviour of Composite Rotors: Simulation Assessment

Fibre-reinforced composite structures under complex loads exhibit gradual damage behaviour with degradation of effective mechanical properties and change of their structural dynamic behaviour. In case of composite rotors, this can lead to catastrophic failure if an eigenfrequency is met by the rotational speed. The description and simulation analysis of the gradual damage behaviour of composite rotors therefore provides the fundamentals for a first understanding of complex and partially-unpredicted structural phenomena. Therefore, a simulation tool is developed using a finite element model, which calculates the damage-dependent structural dynamic behaviour of selected composite rotors considering both damage initiation and in-plane damage evolution due to a combination of out-of-plane and in-plane loads. Damage initiation is determined using failure criteria, whereas the gradual damage evolution using a validated continuum damage mechanics model. Numerical results are compared with experimental results for rotor-typical stress states to assess the model quality, which could be later used for damage identification approaches.