21st Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, 13-18 September, 1998
Paper ICAS-98-5.9.3

NUMERICAL MODELLING FOR PREDICTING DAMAGE TOLERANCE OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURE

Eve 0., Tropis A., Tahiri V.*, Zeghloul A.*
Aerospatiale, France; *Laboratoire de Physique et Mecanique, France

Keywords: numerical modelling, predicting damage tolerance, composite structure

In the past years, primary composite structures have been introduced on civil aircraft by Aerospatiale (ATR 72 outer wing, A330/A340 ailerons ... ). For damage tolerance, the substantiation of the component was up to now mainly based on intensive test programs and empirical formulas. The costs involved by such an approach and the lack of understanding of the physical phenomena appearing in the post-impact behaviour of composite structures have lead to research activities on mechanical prediction. Theoretical methods have been developed and yet presented in the literature, but the analysis was made at the microscopic level, leading to long calculation time and requiring extensive material data. This kind of analysis is thus not directly applicable for the aeronautical industry. Aerospatiale approach is based on a non-linear finite element model including geometrical and physical data (dent depth, delaminated area) and a degraded modulus in the damaged area. Good correlation is obtained between numerical results and an extensive test program performed on T300/914 and IM7/977-2 including complex loading (tension/tension, compression/tension/shear…).

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