9 Pages, 8 figures, submitted to Composite Science and Technology May 2013If carbon fibre layers are prevented from slipping over one another as they consolidate onto a non-trivial geometry, they can be particularly susceptible to wrinkling/buckling instabilities. A one dimensional model for wrinkling during consolidation over an external radius is presented. Critical conditions for the appearance of wrinkles provide possible manufacturing and design strategies to minimise wrinkling. Numerical results for the unstable post buckling paths show localized buckling behaviour which demonstrates qualitative agreement with micrographs of wrinkles.The authors would like to acknowledge GKN Aerospace
and TSB for supporting this work under the grant TSB:1000774.
We are grateful to Ian Lang, Christopher Jones and Richard
Newley, from GKN Aerospace, for many useful discussions
