26th Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences
including the 8th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference
14 - 19 September 2008, Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Paper ICAS 2008-7.3.2

THE DESIGN OF POSTBUCKLING COMPOSITE AEROSPACE STRUCTURES ACCOUNTING FOR DAMAGE INITIATION AND GROWTH

A. C. Orifici, R. S. Thomson*, R. Degenhardt**, J. Bayandor
RMIT Univ., Australia; *CRC-ACS, Australia; **DLR, Germany

Keywords: Stiffened structures, postbuckling design, interlaminar damage, ply damage

An analysis methodology was developed for composite postbuckling structures considering the critical damage mechanisms. This was applied to design pre-damaged fuselage-representative composite panels, which were then experimentally tested to collapse. The methodology gave accurate predictions, and demonstrated the design of composite postbuckling structures accounting for damage initiation and growth.

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