Static and fatigue testing of full-scale fuselage panels fabricated using a Therm-X(R) process
Large, curved, integrally stiffened composite panels representative of an aircraft fuselage structure were fabricated using a Therm-X process, an alternative concept to conventional two-sided hard tooling and contour vacuum bagging. Panels subsequently were tested under pure shear loading in both static and fatigue regimes to assess the adequacy of the manufacturing process, the effectiveness of damage tolerant design features co-cured with the structure, and the accuracy of finite element and closed-form predictions of postbuckling capability and failure load. Test results indicated the process yielded panels of high quality and increased damage tolerance through suppression of common failure modes such as skin-stiffener separation and frame-stiffener corner failure. Finite element analyses generally produced good predictions of postbuckled shape, and a global-local modelling technique yielded failure load predictions that were within 7% of the experimental mean.
- Research Organization:
- Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 79543
- Report Number(s):
- N-95-28266; NASA-CR-198718; NAS-1.26:198718; DOT/FAA/CT-92-25-VOL-3; CONF-9111350-; CNN: NAS1-18799; TRN: 9528270
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9. DPD/NASA/FAA conference on fibrous composites in structural design, Lake Tahoe, NV (United States), 4-7 Nov 1991; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1992; Related Information: Is Part Of Ninth DOD/NASA/FAA Conference on Fibrous Composites in Structural Design, volume 3; Soderquist, J.R.; Neri, L.M.; Bohon, H.L.; PB: [10] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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