Circular Braiding Process Simulation for a Pressure Vessel

Pressure vessel manufacturing is currently dominated by the filament winding process. When higher production rates are required, circular braiding can be considered as an alternative because hundreds of yarns are deposited simultaneously from interlacing spools. The process has a high repeatability and is suited for automated series production, as is currently shown with the production of a-pillars and rockers in the automotive industry. Important manufacturing constraints related to the overbraiding of cylindrical pressure vessels are to avoid excessive jamming of the braid, typically occurring at a small mandrel radius, and to achieve a 100% cover factor at the largest mandrel diameter. In this paper, design guidelines for braiding of cylindrical pressure vessels are proposed. It is shown that a proper choice of the yarn cross-sectional area size and of yarn width-to-thickness aspect ratio can improve the design feasibility, but an adjustment of the braid angle can be required as well.