Report on the Study of the Dimensional Stability of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic Skinned Honeycomb Cored Structures

摘要

The level of defects allowable without detrimentally affecting the dimensional stability of CFRP structures was studied. Modelling techniques for the properties of the structures and the residual stresses that occur as a result of laminating sequence and differential thermal expansions were developed. Tests were conducted to validate the theory and to assess the influence of selected defects and discontinuities on the dimensional stability. Good results are observed for Kevlar cored specimens in humidity and resin dry specimens in thermal cycling. The design of edge members is shown to be important to maintain integrity. A long term (20 weeks) exposure to a normal specimen in a normal working environment has little impact on specimen stability.