Nonlinear and Progressive Failure Aspects of Transport Composite Fuselage Damage Tolerance
Walker, T., Ilcewicz, L., Murphy, D., and Dopker, B.
Computational Methods for Failure Analysis and Life Prediction, NASA-CP-3230, pp. 11-35, 1993.
The purpose is to provide an end-user’s perspective on the state of the art in life prediction and failure analysis by focusing on subsonic transport fuselage issues being addressed in the NASA/Boeing Advanced Technology Composite Aircraft Structure (ATCAS) contract and a related task-order contract. First, some discrepancies between the ATCAS tension-fracture test database and classical prediction methods is discussed, followed by an overview of material modeling work aimed at explaining some of these discrepancies. Finally, analysis efforts associated with a pressure-box test ixture are addressed, as an illustration of modeling complexities required to model and interpret tests.