| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/R54828/01 |
| Title: |
THE EFFECT OF DELEMAINATION DAMAGE ON THE COMPRESSIVE STRENGHTH AND FATIGUE LIFE OF AEROSPACE COMPOSITES |
| Principal Investigator: |
Almond, Professor D |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Mechanical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Bath |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 December 2001 |
Ends: |
30 November 2004 |
Value (£): |
275,895
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Characterisation |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
Manufacturing |
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| Panel History: |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Compressively-loaded composite materials are highly sensitive to the presence of delaminations which may be caused by impact or manufacturing defects. Designers currently use very conservative values of allowable fibre strength to account for such delaminations. To avoid conservativeness and improve structural efficiency, failure prediction within design and analysis needs to model the complex interactions occuring at both material and structural levels. Full Finite Element (FE) representation may be capable of modelling such interaction in the longer term, but it is currently not suited for use at the preliminary design stage. This proposal includes: 1. an extensive experimental investifgation using acoustographic imaging of artificial model defects and impact damage under static and fatigue loading : 2. the development of an analytical understanding of the effects of load on defects of a variety of shapes and sizes in composites of various lay-ups; 3. detailed modelling aimed at providing design-for-damage/defects criteria. The approach will be one of coupling experimental testing, fundamental micro-mechanical reasoning and FE checking. The work will be supervised by a team of researchers with experience in optimisation, buckling, non-linear modelling and testing of composite materials and structures.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bath.ac.uk |