MODERATE AND HIGH STRAIN RATE TESTING OF SHUTTLE REINFORCED CARBON-CARBON WING LEADING EDGE MATERIAL

摘要

This paper describes an extensive experimental program that was designed and completed to fully characterize the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) wing leading edge material. Experiments were completed to support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) constitutive modeling efforts that were required as part of the safe return-to-flight effort for the Space Shuttle fleet. Experiments were conducted on material in three conditions: RCC substrate material, RCC as-fabricated material and conditioned RCC material. Experiments were conducted to characterize the RCC tensile, compressive, in-plane shear and interlaminar shear behaviors at moderate to high rates of strain. Experimental methods used in each case will be described. For each of the four testing states, the results will be presented to illustrate the strain rate dependence and the effect of material state and conditioning on the mechanical behavior.