Statistical-experimental analysis of the effect of fabrication parameters on the strength of composite grid-stiffened cylinders under compressive axial load

The aim of this research is to attain the maximum carried-load under compressive axial loading for a composite lattice cylindrical structure with a specified geometry by an experimental–statistical method. For this purpose, after studying the researches in the field of fabrication factors of structures manufactured by filament winding process and also available facilities, the influence of four fabrication factors including fiber (roving) tension, winding speed, cure cycle and fiber type on the product quality and strength of the composite lattice cylinders is investigated. For this purpose design of experiment (DOE) with Taguchi method is applied to investigate the effect of fabrication factors on the the response variables in three levels without considering their interactions. According to Taguchi method nine structures are manufactured and tested and the results of the test are analyzed using analysis of variance to determine the influence of the fabrication factors on the response variables. Two response variables including specific maximum carried-load and compressive efficiency have been considered. Fiber type with 88.33 % and fiber tension with 9.67 % have greater influence, respectively, on the specific maximum carried-load while the effect of winding speed with 0.7 % and cure cycle with 0.29 % are negligible. Fiber type with 54.20 %, fiber tension with 23.54 % and winding speed with 14.86 % have greater influence, respectively, on the compressive efficiency while the effect of cure cycle with 1.85 % is negligilble. Manufacturing parameters are optimized according to the compressive efficiency response variable. In order to verify the resu