Development of a biaxial test facility for structural evaluation of aircraft fuselage panels
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sunwest CAD, Tijeras, NM (United States)
The number of commercial airframes exceeding twenty years of service continues to grow. An unavoidable by-product of aircraft use is that crack and corrosion flaws develop throughout the aircraft`s skin and substructure elements. Economic barriers to the purchase of new aircraft have created an aging aircraft fleet and placed even greater demands on efficient and safe repair methods. Composite doublers, or repair patches, provide an innovative repair technique which can enhance the way aircraft are maintained. Instead of riveting multiple steel or aluminum plates to facilitate an aircraft repair, it is now possible to bond a single Boron-Epoxy composite doubler to the damaged structure. The composite doubler repair process produces both engineering and economic benefits. The FAA`s Airworthiness Assurance Center at Sandia National Labs completed a project to introduce composite doubler repair technology to the commercial aircraft industry. This paper focuses on a specialized structural test facility which was developed to evaluate the performance of composite doublers on actual aircraft structure. The facility can subject an aircraft fuselage section to a combined load environment of pressure (hoop stress) and axial, or longitudinal, stress. The tests simulate maximum cabin pressure loads and use a computerized feedback system to maintain the proper ratio between hoop and axial loads. Through the use of this full-scale test facility it was possible to: (1) assess general composite doubler response in representative flight load scenarios, and (2) verify the design and analysis approaches as applied to an L-1011 door corner repair.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Financial Management and Controller, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 671985
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-98-0696C; CONF-980627-; ON: DE98004256; BR: 400407000; TRN: AHC2DT07%%144
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1998 SEM spring conference on experimental and applied mechanics, Houston, TX (United States), 1-3 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: Mar 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Development and validation of bonded composite doubler repairs for commercial aircraft.
Development program to certify composite doubler repair technique for commercial aircraft