UFMFU6-15-3 Composite Engineering
Integrated Design Project:
Material Characterisation, Manufacturing and Design
Resit Assignment
Deadlines:
Slide Submission 08/07/2025 14:00
Presentations days - 9th, 10th, and 14th July 2025
Outline
This assignment represents 75% of the total module marks. The assignment assumes you have studied the lecture notes and completed the lab sessions. The assignment is assessed via a group presentation and subsequent questions. Resit groups are available on Blackboard and assigned by the module team. All your group members are expected to work as a team and initially receive equal marks for this task. A peer assessment process distinguishes between members of your group identifying individuals that have made significantly larger (or lesser) contributions to the submission. The peer assessment is available on Blackboard. As a reminder, the project aims to integrate the various aspects of practical/design work you have completed throughout the module.
Learning Outcomes and Effort
The following learning outcomes are covered by this assignment:
• MO3 - Design optimum solutions with composite materials.
• MO4 - Critically analyse the inter-relationship between manufacturing process, mate-rial properties, quality and cost.
• MO5 - Appraise the performance and discuss the key conflicts of using composite materials with regard to sustainability and recyclability.
The total effort should reflect 40 work hours, but this does not include the time you have already spent completing lab activities during the taught sessions.
Weightings
The group project contributes 75% of your overall module mark. The assignment mark is based on,
• 25% The quality of your group’s slides and their presentation.
• 75% Your group’s responses to technical questions.
You will be asked to focus on two topics during your presentation,
Main - 1 Design with Matlab.
Main - 2 Manufacturing and quality assurance.
However, you must include an appendix in your presentation slides. This must include the key results from the Composite and Structures lab activities:
Appendix - 1 Experimental analysis.
Appendix - 2 Initial Laminate calculations.
Each section has a deliverable associated with it, these key outcomes must be shown in your presentation.
We will review your appendix section before the presentation. We do not expect you to present this content during your 10 minutes. However, we may ask you to clarify some de-tails as part of your response to questions.
As a team, you will be expected to answer technical questions about all aspects of the project. You should ALL be familiar with ALL parts of the project. Therefore, you must communicate effectively with each other. Your peer score will be affected by multiple factors, such as your communication within the team, your contribution to the analysis, and your creation of the final slides and presentation.
Blackboard Submission and Presentation
A group submission point will be created for the slides in the assignments area.
This assignment is not eligible for extensions as it is group work.
Your presentation slot is treated like an examination. If you do not attend the presentation, you will receive a mark of 0, even if the group completes the presentation without you. Please note that all assessments will be held in person by default - there must be a legitimate reason to request an online assessment, all group members must agre,e and it must be requested in advance. All group members must have a good internet connection and a working camera.
Peer-Review
Each team member must submit their review form. on Blackboard. Your group’s peer review scores is used to increase/decrease your personal mark relative to the group’s score. The maximum increase is capped at 10% of your group’s score. There is no lower limit, i.e. you will fail if you do not engage/contribute to the group assignment. The module team reserve the right to exercise their academic judgement on an individual’s performance when reviewing peer scores and use this to determine the final individual marks.
Formative Feedback
A drop-in session will be held in June to allow you to get feedback from the module team. This is your opportunity to ask questions about the assignment and get support from staff.
How to get started?
Your starting point should be reviewing any feedback from the first sit. As a group, you should review all of your work from lab activities—for example, some groups may have duplicate data sets that they could use owing to new group formation.
How to get a good mark?
To get a good grade, as a team, you must show you have understood all aspects of the experimental work, what the implications of manufacturing choices mean for the quality of your product, and how to critically incorporate these into any design choices. You must be able to demonstrate your ability to research supporting information and critically appraise the performance of your design against a variety of metrics. You must also be able to articulate key findings and present these clearly.
FAQs/Discussions Board
The module team will post answers to questions that benefit all teams in a FAQ/discussion area on Blackboard. Keep checking this, as it will be updated regularly.
Group Assignments and Group Working
The module staff will allocate groups for this assignment. We will aim to keep the groups aligned with those at the first sit; however, we may add additional members or remove others where an issue with collaborative working was identified in the first sit. It is up to you to manage your group—this is a professional competency expected of graduate engineers. It is suggested that during your team meetings, you:
• Review previous work and identify any work that is behind schedule.
• Identify and record actions for each team member.
• Agree on a work/meeting schedule, including regular progress updates.
As part of being a professional engineer, you should agree to deliver your work promptly (well in advance of the deadline). This allows the whole team to review its content. If you believe a team member is struggling to deliver their work, it is best to raise this courteously within the group first, and allow them an opportunity to explain. It may be that the task is more challenging than it first appeare,d and the team needs to adapt. Try to find an agreeable solution in advance. Conversely, if you know you can’t complete work assigned to you on time, don’t ignore this, try to let your team know, they may be able to support you. You should be working together on the assignments, and a good way to do this is to have a colleague check your calculations/validate your results. Similarly, we expect you to show validation of your results to demonstrate critical evaluation skills. Do your team members draw the same conclusions from your presented evidence?
Please note: If one of your team members is not responding to emails or has not engaged, let the module team know as soon as possible.
SECTION Main - 1: Design with Matlab
A client seeks to develop a lightweight vertical tower to support a wind turbine that can be erected in remote locations, see Figure 1. The device must be easily transported and de-ployed in various challenging environments - e.g. tropical, desert and coastal. Your priority is to minimise the structure’s mass and, where possible, its stowage volume. The client has provided a preliminary geometry, and they want to identify the system’s failure load.
The vertical tower shall be secured to a ground plate/foundation via a bolted connection. This will provide sufficient restraint that a fully fixed boundary condition may be assumed. For the initial design, you may assume a structural requirement as shown in Figure 2a, i.e. a cantilevered column, subject to a uniformly distributed lateral load.
The initial design, a rectangular-section tube, is proposed to be constructed from glass fibre. You may assume that the tube’s wall thickness H is small, relative to the section’s sides X and Y , such that thin-walled analysis is appropriate, Figure 2b. However, you should ensure this is valid in your final proposed designs, and if not, comment on what further analysis should be recommended to the client (You are not expected to complete analysis beyond beam theory in answering the brief).
You do not need to design the bolted ground anchor, deployment mechanism, or connection between sections. However, you should consider their impact on your design to ensure it remains feasible and realistic. Analysis must be conducted in MATLAB and supported by hand calculations.
Figure 1: Conceptual design of a wind-turbine anchored to the ground at the base
(a) Column like layout of beam, length L, with clamped support at the root, Lateral wind load W.
(b) Cross section of the thin-walled tube shown for illustrative purposes.
Figure 2: Assumed Structural Analysis
The following approach is suggested:
1. Using a 24 ply quasi-isotropic laminate as the baseline and assuming the same glass fibre constituent materials from the laboratory sessions. Determine the maximum load the structure can support with a reserve factor of 2.5. What is the baseline mass/stowage volume of the structures?
2. Show, if possible, how the baseline quasi-isotropic layup could be improved to increase performance by tailoring the layup. Can you reduce the mass/volume while main-taining the same maximum load? Show how the performance varies with different designs.
3. The client has noted that the expected deflection of the structure may be excessive for their operational requirements. Modify your design to ensure tip deflection is kept below the limit of L/180. Graphically compare the deflected shape of your new designs with the previous ones and show that they meet the new constraint.
4. The client would like you to improve the stowage volume. How could your designs be modified to incorporate tapering of the beam and/or segmentation so that parts can be stowed within each other? What is the impact on the mass and deflections of the structure? Any simplifying assumptions must be conservative.
5. The company’s stakeholders have raised concerns about the sustainability of the chosen material. They have suggested a new material, “GlueBam”. Research this material, and provide an estimate on the impact its inclusion would have on the final perfor-mance.
Advice
Consider what design tolerance and loading factors may be appropriate when proposing your design. When discussing your design, you MUST provide quantitative evidence for your selected designs relative to other options and comments, including the laminate’s strength reserve factor. The breadth of design comparisons shown should be commensurate with the number of members in your group.
Deliverables
You must include the following information:
• Material and strength properties you have assumed. Including how you have obtained them. (See Appendix 2 requirements).
• Load conditions and any simplifying assumptions regarding structural behaviour or conservative use of formulae.
• Response characteristics, including deflected shape and maximum stress/reserve fac-tors.
• Any layups and part geometry.
• Quantitative evidence for how you have selected your designs.
SECTION Main - 2: Manufacturing and Quality Assurance
Integrating with analysis from the “Design with Matlab”, the client has asked your team to recommend a manufacturing approach for the build of a full-scale demonstrator with a 5-year in-service test life. You should consult a range of sources (i.e. not just lecture notes) to provide them with a well-justified recommendation. Questions to be considered are:
1. Detail the manufacturing process that you would recommend for cost-effective produc-tion?
2. A “right-first-time” approach is needed, so how will you minimise manufacturing de-fects?
3. What commercially available materials would you use for the manufacturing approach?
4. How will you demonstrate that the conformance of the component is adequate ahead of delivery? What quality assurance practices would you employ?
Advice
You should provide a recommended manufacturing approach that addresses the client’s ques-tions, which must be supported by suitably referenced sources. As part of your recommen-dation, show how you will ensure the quality of the product in manufacturing and during installed operation. Ideally, define the minimum acceptable defect size before corrective ac-tion is required. Consider the complexity of the manufacturing approach, especially in terms of tooling and how that impacts on handling and geometrical assurance (e.g. spring-in), link back to your chosen candidate designs. Provide details on how you will ensure the reliability/performance of your final product - you should consider the varied operational environment and intended use in any discussion. Be sure to highlight any additional con-siderations the client should be aware of when selecting the final design for their intended application (for example, what if the client then asks for any thoughts on how the structure would be lifted/assembled).
Deliverable
You must include the following:
• A recommended manufacturing approach with evidenced justification.
• How will you ensure the quality of your product?
• How will you ensure its ongoing functionality?
• Reflection on the lifecycle of the product and any sustainability challenges.
SECTION Appendix - 1: Experimental Analysis
The appendix information should be included in your slides, but you do not need to deliver its content when you present.
Your group has manufactured and tested at least two different configurations of composite material. Review the data you have collected and decide which is most reliable. Use the data you obtained from standard tensile testing methods to determine:
• The tensile modulus of the materials.
• The tensile strength of the materials.
• The stress at initial fibre failure.
• Occurrence of matrix cracking, first ply failure or delamination - note that the failure mechanisms depend upon the type of material being tested.
Advice
You should consult Blackboard for the standard test methods, key material details, etc.
You should also review the data to ensure you are selecting the correct ranges for your calculations.
Deliverable
You must show
• Which laminate’s data have you analysed?
• Graphically, your stress/strain response and any data points used to infer modulus or strength.
• A comparison to technicians’ benchmark data.
• Final modulus calculations, indicating any assumptions.
SECTION Appendix - 2: Initial Laminate Calculations
Using the information provided on Blackboard (and where needed, external sources) predict the theoretical performance of the composite panels you manufactured for Appendix A:
• Rule of Mixtures with Efficiency Factor.
• Simplified Classical Laminate Analysis formula.
• Classical Laminate Analysis (ElamX or Matlab).
Using these methods and knowledge of composite behaviour, predict the samples’:
• Tensile modulus & strength.
• Tensile failure mechanism (first ply failure).
You should consider the advantages and limitations of each approach and how they compare with the experimental values you have observed.
Advice
You need to present a clear comparison of each of the methods for your specific samples and compare these results to those obtained experimentally. Review any discrepancy between each method’s predictions and how well these compare to observed experimental results.
Based on the above analysis and other sources, identify a full set of material and strength properties that you will use for your design analysis. State clearly why you have selected these values, and if appropriate, the source of any values that are taken from the literature.
Deliverable
You must show:
• Your measured values are the inputs for your calculations.
• Outputs from each of the methods and comparison to experimental values.
• Identify any discrepancies between methods and provide a justification for them.
SECTION Overall: Quality of presentation and its delivery
You can choose how you lay out and structure the information within your presentation. The names of all contributing team members should be listed on the title page. You will have time to explain the content during the presentation, so avoid large blocks of text. Your presentation should have a logical structure and highlight the key results. Where you have referenced external sources, these should be cited as footnotes - with the references included at the bottom of the slide
You will get a maximum 10 minutes to present your work. This should comprise Sections 1 and 2, not the appendices. You will be told to stop if you go over time. Your team members should all contribute to the presentation. You will then have 15 minutes of unseen technical questions. Questions will be posed to the team and all members should contribute to answering questions. There are no set questions; questions will be related to your group’s presentation, the appendices, and follow-up questions based on your initial response.
Deliverable
The presentation must be submitted as a pdf - you may also include a PowerPoint submis-sion, i.e. ppt - however, other presentation formats cannot be guaranteed to work.
You will be asked technical questions which cover all aspects of the brief. While it is accept-able for one person in the team to lead in different areas, we still expect all group members to contribute to answering questions and to be familiar with the details of all sections.
For the avoidance of any doubt. You MUST attend your presentation slot with your team, or you will get a zero score.