U.S. ARMY ― BOEING'S RWSTD - STATIC TEST AND NON-LINEAR ANALYSIS CORRELATION

摘要

The Rotary Wing Structures Technology Demonstration (RWSTD) article is a carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) center fuselage for the AH-64 Apache designed to reduce weight and manufacturing cost. Longitudinal stiffeners, integral with the fuselage skin and interrupted by precured CFRP frames, are infused and cured as a unitized structure using a Vacuum Assist Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) process. Due to the complexity of the structure, fuselage performance was predicted using geometric non-linear FE analysis. Static testing was performed to measure strains and displacements for three different load conditions that closely match the edges of the design envelope. A comparison of predicted strains to measured strains was conducted in order to identify those areas requiring additional correlation effort. Post-test correlation work was then completed at precise strain gage locations to account for differences between the analytical and actual structures. Exceptional correlation is demonstrated by a comparison of the measured strains to the final analytical strains.