Architecture-stiffness relationships in woven engineered prepreg platelet composites in a closed-section geometry

This work presents engineered prepreg platelet (EPP) laminates, which consist of architected platelet-based composites with tailorable morphologies. Although many platelet systems are still validated at specimen scale, this work evaluates a closed-section component geometry reinforced with different woven EPP architectures to characterise their impact at component scale stiffness and the transferability of platelet-array computational modelling. A closed-section wing component was manufactured utilising a continuous woven baseline laminate and three EPP architectures, which was then tested in a cantilever bending load test with spanwise displacement measured using displacement transducers. A linear-elastic ABAQUS model was also implemented to capture pre-damage load transfer and validate existing platelet-based modelling techniques and their suitability for component geometries. All EPP architectures exhibit increased deflections between 9and13% relative to the continuous laminate, with architecture-dependent stiffness retention remaining consistent with the platelet parameters and overlap-controlled shear transfer. This work demonstrates the potential of woven EPP architectures, and their potential to be tailored according to structural design requirements.