Damage criticality and inspection concerns of composite-metallic aircraft structures under blunt impact

D. Zou; C. Haack; P. Bishop; A. Bezabeh

doi:10.1117/12.2085466

1 April 2015 Damage criticality and inspection concerns of composite-metallic aircraft structures under blunt impact

D. Zou, C. Haack, P. Bishop, A. Bezabeh

Proceedings Volume 9437, Structural Health Monitoring and Inspection of Advanced Materials, Aerospace, and Civil Infrastructure 2015; 94370C (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2085466
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2015, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Composite aircraft structures such as fuselage and wings are subject to impact from many sources. Ground service equipment (GSE) vehicles are regarded as realistic sources of blunt impact damage, where the protective soft rubber is used. With the use of composite materials, blunt impact damage is of special interest, since potential significant structural damage may be barely visible or invisible on the structure’s outer surface. Such impact can result in local or non-local damage, in terms of internal delamination in skin, interfacial delamination between stiffeners and skin, and fracture of internal reinforced component such as stringers and frames. The consequences of these events result in aircraft damage, delays, and financial cost to the industry. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the criticality of damage under this impact and provide reliable recommendations for safety and inspection technologies. This investigation concerns a composite-metallic 4-hat-stiffened and 5-frame panel, designed to represent a fuselage structure panel generic to the new generation of composite aircraft. The test fixtures were developed based on the correlation between finite element analyses of the panel model and the barrel model. Three static tests at certain amount of impact energy were performed, in order to improve the understanding of the influence of the variation in shear ties, and the added rotational stiffness. The results of this research demonstrated low velocity high mass impacts on composite aircraft fuselages beyond 82.1 kN of impact load, which may cause extensive internal structural damage without clear visual detectability on the external skin surface.

Citation Download Citation

D. Zou, C. Haack, P. Bishop, and A. Bezabeh "Damage criticality and inspection concerns of composite-metallic aircraft structures under blunt impact", Proc. SPIE 9437, Structural Health Monitoring and Inspection of Advanced Materials, Aerospace, and Civil Infrastructure 2015, 94370C (1 April 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2085466

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
17 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Skin

Actuators

Composites

Inspection

Finite element methods

Chemical elements

Aircraft structures

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years