Damage Tolerance Evaluation of Full-Scale Sandwich Composite Fuselage Panels

摘要

This report examines the behavior of full-scale cylindrical sandwich panels with different flaw types under longitudinal and pressurization loads that were investigated experimentally. Test panels were fabricated using Toray T700S-12K-50C/no. 2510 plain weave carbon fabric prepreg (F6273C-07M, 190 g/m(sup 2)) for the facesheets and an overexpanded cell DuPont(Trade Name) Nomex(Trade name) honeycomb core (Hexcel Composites, HRH-10/OX-3/16-3.0). Both facesheets had a stacking sequence of (45/0/45) and the core thickness used in the test section was 0.75 inch. The cylindrical panel had an internal radius of 74 inches and measured 125 inches long. An undamaged test panel was subjected to longitudinal loading, pressurization, and a combination of both loads to study the resulting strain distributions in the panel. Test panels with a 10-inch-diameter open hole, 10-inch-long slit along longitudinal direction, 10-inch-long longitudinal notch, 10-inch-long circumferential notch, and a 10-inch-long notch at 45 degrees to the longitudinal axis were tested under different combinations of loads, and the residual strengths were measured. A total of eight static tests were performed on six full-scale panels.