Analysis of the manufacturing signature on AFP-manufactured variable stiffness composites

Variable stiffness composites broaden the design space, in comparison with straight-fiber composites, to meet fixed mechanical performance. Nevertheless, the manufacturing of these advanced composites incurs into the presence of undesired fabrication defects such as gaps and overlaps, which alter the mechanical behavior of the laminated parts. In this work, the authors couple the Defect Layer Method, utilized to model defects, with the Carrera Unified Formulation in order to study how the manufacturing signature affects the fundamental frequency of variable stiffness laminates.