27th Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 19 - 24 September 2010, Nice, France
Paper ICAS 2010-9.8.1

DYNAMIC AND QUASI-STATIC CRUSH TESTING OF CLOSED CARBON-FIBRE/EPOXY ELEMENTS

A. Jackson, M. David*, A. J. Gunnion**, D. Kelly, S. Dutton
Univ. of New South Wales, Australia; *DLR, Germany; **CRC-ACS, Australia

Keywords: crashworthy design, energy absorption, composites, crush, joints

Crush testing has been undertaken of various carbon-fibre/epoxy compound specimens, representative of elements in the energy-absorbing structure of a modern crashworthy helicopter. The dynamic and quasi-static crush performance and fracture behaviour of the compound elements are compared, and multiple specimen manufacturing methods are evaluated.

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