23rd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 8-13 September, 2002, Toronto, Canada
Paper ICAS 2002-3.1.2

FAILURE PREDICTION OF STRINGER STIFFENED COMPOSITE PANELS WITH IMPACT DAMAGE UNDER UNIAXIAL COMPRESSION

P. T. Curtis (1), C. Soutis (2), Y. Zhuk (2), I. Guz (2)
(1) DSTL, UK; (2) Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, UK

Keywords: layered structures, impact behaviour, strength, stiffened panels

The in-plane compressive behaviour of thin-skin stiffened composite panels with a stress concentrator in the form of an open hole or low velocity impact damage is examined analytically. A fracture mechanics model, developed initially to predict notched compressive strength, was applied to estimate the compression-after-impact strength of a stiffened panel; in the analysis the impact damage is replaced with an equivalent open hole. A good agreement between experimental measurements and predicted values for the critical failure load is obtained.

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