Holistic Design Process for Hollow StructuresBased on Braided Textiles and RTM

The present paper elaborates a holistic design process to unlock the potential of the mass production-ready manufacturing chain 2D overbraiding in conjunction with Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM). This contains sub-design processes for preform, infusion, mandrel plus mould and manufacturing. They are passed through in the given order. For each sub-process both, individual tasks and reasonable methods to accomplish them are presented. The methods are arranged according to part complexity. The procedure is performed for a medium complex demonstrator part to validate the proposed design process. After manufacturing of prototypes, predicted braiding angles and fibre volume fractions are compared with measured ones. Furthermore, an infusion simulation based on PAM-RTM is checked against mould filling studies.