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Benefits
Research in structures and materials will provide data, methods and procedures for the improvement of the design process, structural safety and reliability, cost effectiveness, certification procedure and passenger comfort of future aircraft in general. Improved data quality and accuracy of prediction are direct results of the research performed. With the intense competition in civil aeronautics, this is of great importance. Such progress can be directly translated to advantages in a commercial sector. Prediction accuracy and certainty of performance enhancements are of major importance. Complex laminates, such as woven and non-crimped fabrics (NCF), are being used with increased frequency for the manufacture of components with complex geometries. Within the study in SM(AG27), failure in such laminates will be better understood. Low energy impact is critical for damage tolerance of composite structures. It may create superposed delaminations at the layer interfaces and the material is often repaired by bonding. The durability and the efficiency of bonded repair to composite structures subjected to loading (including fatigue loading) becomes crucial. In recognition of the need to reduce testing costs, SM(AG28) will allow the development of reliable prediction methods for repaired structures. The probabilistic methodology investigated in SM(AG29) permits rapid theoretical predictions of stochastic material properties (such as strength). Structural reliability is then predicted from the strength distribution and actual loading data. The benefits of the overall programme of SM(AG30) will be:
the further validation of the bird models and of the composite material
models employed in the prediction of delamination
and fibre failure in particular; more realistic predictions; for example,
with relation to the impact on pre-stressed
structures; assessment of the inherent variability within a birdstrike event through statistical modelling, this will
include variations generated both by the bird and within the impacted
structure; and, finally, assessment of the effect of hail, stones and rubber
impacts, particularly on composite materials. All mentioned research activities imply important gains in the usability of procedures and improved understanding of their limitations. They will provide valuable knowledge which is shared between the partners and thus reduces the effort for each of them. Furthermore, they will enable industry to make progress in the design process and in the production of structures. Besides, other benefits from the results lead to improvement in fuel efficiency and thus to a lower demand on natural resources. |
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Last Update : 20 March 2006 |
