Buckling tests of sandwich cylindrical shells with and without cut-outs

The results of buckling tests performed during the project DESICOS funded by the European Commission in the FP7 Programme are here presented. The tested structures are sandwich cylindrical shells that consist of reduced models of a component of the Ariane 5 launcher: the Dual Launch System. In particular, the scaled component is studied with and...

Smart ultrasonic welding of thermoplastic composites

This paper presents an overview of the latest research on ultrasonic welding of composites performed at the Delft University of Technology. Firstly, we showed that for thermoplastic composites, a simple flat energy director shape, made of a loose film of neat resin, can be used to produce welds of high quality. Furthermore, for single lap...