The Braided Composite Exhibiting Near-Zero Equal Thermal Expansion Behavior for Potential Application in Airships
摘要
Braided composites are superior as compared to conventional fiber reinforced composites as they have better resistance to delamination and can be tailored to meet design requirements. A three-dimensional (3D) five-axes braided composite is superior as compared to its four-axes counterpart as it has better thermo-mechanical properties in the braiding direction. This paper presents a 3D five-axes braided composite representative unit cell (RUC) configuration exhibiting near-zero equal coefficients of thermal expansion along its principal directions. The optimized RUC parameters are the braiding angle, fiber volume fraction of braided yarns, and fiber volume fraction of axial yarns. The optimized RUC parameters, leading to the aforementioned thermoelastic feature, are determined using the grey wolf optimizer and analytical homogenization technique. This study employs thermoelastic properties of commonly utilized fiber and matrix materials. The proposed braided composite RUC configuration is beneficial for high-altitude airships and other applications demanding a high strength-to-weight ratio along with dimensional stability under a higher magnitude of temperature changes.