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3D Visualization of Filament Band Winding for Reinforced Plastics

Manufacture

Article in Advanced Materials Research · September 2013

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.816-817.1006

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Advanced Materials Research Vols. 816-817 (2013) pp 1006-1009
© (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.816-817. 1006

3D Visualization of Filament Band Winding for Reinforced Plastics

Manufacture
Jianhui Fu1,a, Jaedeuk Yun1,b and Yoongho Jung1,c
1
School of Mechanical Eng., Pusan National University, Geomjeong-gu, Busan 609-735, S. Korea
a
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Keywords: filament path, geodesic, simulation.

Abstract. Filament winding simulation, an essential part of a CAD/CAM integrated system, helps the
user to gain an intuitive understanding of the process of filament winding, the winding pattern, and
laminate structure, and so find and solve potential problems before actual production. This speeds up the
R&D cycle and reduces costs. To reduce costs, instead of winding several individually tensioned rovings,
a band is usually wound. Thus, we present a band winding visualization system. The simulation system
includes filament-path generation and graphic display of the band. In generating band paths, each
filament path that constitutes a band path is produced from an initial fiber path based on geodesic
equations. To imitate the band winding process more realistically, model display methods are used to deal
with the graphic relationships among the different models, including the band model, mandrel model, and
winding machine model. The simulation system can visualize the band laying process with the
corresponding winder movement, and runs stably and reliably.

Introduction
Bundles of filaments, called filament bands, are used to reduce the winding time of filament-reinforced
products. Simulation of the winding process, in which the filament band, mandrel, winding machine, and
laminate structure are all graphically displayed in three dimensions, is an important part of the
fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) industry. In the simulation, the process of laying the filament band onto the
mandrel surface with winding machine movements is simulated. This allows the user to observe the
winding process intuitively and find potential problems before manufacture begins, thus reducing the
R&D cycle cost.
Filament winding simulations for toroidal tanks [1], S-elbows [2], and airplane inlets and vanes [3]
have been published. However, only a single fiber path, not the band path, is simulated. Although one
paper [4] gave a simple description of a filament band path simulation, all the bands appear in the same
layer with no overlapping, which does not represent the actual situation. In practice, an earlier winding
band is covered by later ones. Several well-known commercial CAD/CAM programs for filament
winding, e.g., CadWind™ (Material, Belgium) [5] and CadFil (Crescent Consultants, UK) [6], can
simulate the band-laying process with the filament winder movement in 3D, but their detailed methods
have not been published. In this paper, we show the development of a 3D real-time simulation of laying
filament bands on a mandrel vessel with winding machine movements.

Band Generation
As shown in Fig. 1, a band is composed of many fiber paths, which are represented by a set
{ }
B= T(i) i=0,1, ,m , where m is the total number of fiber paths. Each fiber path T i = { P i ,j j=0,1, ,n} is
() ( )
made up of a sequence of discrete points Pi ,j  , where n is the total number of discrete points on the fiber
path Ti  . Band generation is the process of converting an initial fiber path T 0 to a band surface expressed
by triangular facets.
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 816-817 1007

P(i, j+2)

P(i, j+1)
P(i, j) P(i, j-1)
T(i)

…
T(1)

T(0)

T(2)

…
T(i+1)

Fig. 1 Band structure

Figure 2 shows the flow chart for band generation. First, the offset fiber paths Ti   i =1, ,m  are
generated from the initial input fiber path T 0 , based on geodesic equations to ensure that the offset fiber
paths are located on the mandrel surface. In essence, the initial fiber path offset adjusts the point on the
initially loaded fiber path by a geodesic arc distance in the offset direction. Second, the band surface is
formed by a series of triangular facets according to the STL file format in which the facet vertices are
listed in counterclockwise order when looking at the object from the outside. Thus, the triangular mesh for
the band is formed by connecting the discrete points on the adjacent fiber paths in counterclockwise order.
The accuracy of the band surface is controlled by the geodesic arc length l c ,m  in the direction of motion of
the fiber path and the geodesic arc length l c ,o  in the offset direction. These values are controlled by the
user.

Start

Offset point calculation

Input of initial fiber path
on cylinder surface

Offset point calculation

Offset initial fiber path
on the ellipsoid surface

Offset point calculation

Band formation
across different surfaces

End

Fig. 2 Flow chart for band generation

Display method
Displaying the band winding simulation requires managing the graphic relationships among the band
model, the mandrel model and the winding machine model. For each model, we expect that the
components of the model closer to the viewing point are visualized and the others are occluded. Thus, an
OpenGL function is used to manage the depth buffer, also called the Z-buffer. However, the fragments of
the models may intersect, as shown in Fig. 3(a), because they are at almost the same depth from the
viewing point. To resolve this problem, an OpenGL function is used to offset the mandrel surface by the
exaggerated buffer depth to allow the band surface to cover the mandrel surface. The effect is shown in
Fig. 3(b). Another OpenGL function is then used for the painter algorithm, which can sort all the polygons
1008 Manufacturing Science and Technology (ICMST2013)

in a scene by the painting order. The display effect before and after employing the OpenGL function is
shown in Fig. 4.

(a) Before offsetting buffer (b) After offsetting buffer

depth depth
Fig. 3 Graphic display of band and mandrel

(a) Before writing into depth (b) After writing into depth
buffer buffer
Fig. 4 Graphic display of band itself

The graphic display of the band surface consists of triangular facets and both boundary lines of the
band. When simulating, the triangular facets and boundary lines should be drawn synchronously and the
later winding band surface will cover the earlier ones. Thus, a “back and forth” band should be
decomposed into a “back” band and a “forth” band; these are called one-way bands to facilitate
interpretation, as shown in Fig. 5. To be consistent with the real band-forming process, the one-way bands
should be drawn from the first to the last.
“Forth”band
（2）

（4）
“Back”band
（1）

One-way band （3）

Fig. 5 Drawing order of band surfaces

Application
The proposed algorithm for 3D visualization of filament band winding was implemented using Microsoft
Visual Studio 2008, C++ and OpenGL in the Windows 7 environment. As shown in Fig. 6, the band
shape is generated from the initial fiber path, and 3D real-time filament band-laying formation with
four-axis movement of the winding machine. The simulation program always displays the band surface of
the current winding by covering the mandrel surface and the former band surfaces, even though they are
almost on the same layer, which is consistent with the actual winding process.
 Advanced Materials Research Vols. 816-817 1009

Fig. 6 3D visualization of band winding simulation

Conclusion
An algorithm for simulating filament band winding is described and the implementation discussed. The
developed system can generate a filament band from an initial fiber path to simulate 3D real-time band
winding with four-axis movement of the winding machine, and the graphic display relationships among
the models are dealt with. This system can be expanded to other shapes of mandrel vessel, e.g., elbow,
torus, and asymmetric products.

References
[1] L. Zu, D. Zhang, Y. Xu, D. Xiao, Integral design and simulation of composite toroidal hydrogen
storage tanks, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 37 (2012) 1027-1036.
[2] X. Wang, J. Xiao, L. Wen, Winding Pattern Design and Simulation of S-elbow, Chin. J. Aeronaut. 23
(2010) 573-577.
[3] H. Fu, X. Wang, Z. Han, Y. Fu, Abnormal shape mould winding, Chin. J. Aeronaut. 20 (2007)
552-558.
[4] H. Li, Y. Liang, H. Bao, Splines in the parameter domain of surfaces and their application in filament
winding, Comput. Aided Des. 39 (2007) 268-275.
[5] Information on http://www.material.be/
[6] Information on http://www.cadfil.com/

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