1685. Straining for Weight Savings in Advanced Composites

Paper

Abstract

A driving force behind the application of advanced composite materials to aircraft structure is the potential for significant cost effective weight savings. The impact on aircraft performance and cost will be fully realized when these materials are applied to primary structural components. The interest in the application of advanced composites to primary structure has focused considerable attention on the damage tolerance aspects of fiber reinforced laminated composites.
Due to defect/damage sensitivity and unknowns associated with long-term behavior of damaged structure the allowable strain levels are limited to preclude the possibility of defect/damage growth for all design conditions and environments. However, designing to low strain levels decreases the attractiveness of using advanced composites in terms of reduced weight savings especially in strength critical components. Thus the current thrust is to push the strain barrier to new limits.
Current and potential levels of strain allowables for advanced composites are presented with methods for predicting their impact on weight savings.