Durability and damage tolerance of subcomponent and full-scale wing box structure fabricated by VaRTM are evaluated. Fatigue spectrum with load enhancement factor was applied to the test articles for 1 DSO of 40,000 flights. The Mini-TWIST fatigue spectrum is used for both tests. Then, impact damages are given to the skin stiffened by co-cured stringer and typical skin part by drop-weight to create the delamination. After that, impact damage growth is evaluated during 1 DSO fatigue spectrum and optimal inspection interval is examined. Finally, residual strength of structures is verified by ultimate load test with 150% design limit load. Applied strain level for Subcomponents are intentionally higher than original one in order to evaluate the structural performance in more critical condition. Non-destructive inspection is carried out by 3D ultrasonic scan system with multiple-array sensors to evaluate delamination growth. In Subcomponent test, stringer run-out shows local out-of-plane deformation and that causes dis-bonding of stringer termination. The disbonding area gradually increases during 1 DSO fatigue test. However, the structure did not show any degradation of structural performance. The damage tolerance tests verify that impact-induced delaminations have not grown throughout the 1 DSO. In the final ultimate load test, the load bearing-capabilities of present VaRTM wing structure have been verified and the structure could survive for 4 seconds without any detrimental deformation and damage growth.
CITATION STYLE
Aoki, Y., Hirano, Y., Sugimoto, S., Iwahori, Y., Nagao, Y., & Ohnuki, T. (2011). Durability and damage tolerance evaluation of VaRTM composite wing structure. In ICAF 2011 Structural Integrity: Influence of Efficiency and Green Imperatives - Proceedings of the 26th Symposium of the International Committee on Aeronautical Fatigue (pp. 561–572). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1664-3_45
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