Skin-stringer separation in post-buckling of butt-joint stiffened thermoplastic composite panels

Two aeronautical thermoplastic composite stiffened panels are analysed and tested to investigate the buckling behaviour, the skin-stringer separation and the final failure mode. The panels are made of fast crystallising polyetherketoneketone carbon composite, have three stringers with an angled cap on one side, and are joined to the skin by a...

Design, analysis and testing of thermoplastic welded stiffened panels to investigate skin-stringer separation in post-buckling

Thermoplastic composite three-stringer panels with omega stiffeners and conduction welded joints are designed, analysed and tested until final failure to investigate the performance of the welded joint in post-buckling. The three-stringer panels are designed to be structurally representative of the fuselage demonstrator of the Clean Sky 2...

Experimental and numerical evaluation of conduction welded thermoplastic composite joints

The capability of joining two thermoplastic composite parts by welding is a key technology to reduce the weight and cost of assembled parts and enables high volume manufacturing of future aeronautical structures made of thermoplastic composite materials. However, there is not much experimental understanding of the mechanisms involving welded...

Characterization and analysis of the interlaminar behavior of thermoplastic composites considering fiber bridging and R-curve effects

Thermoplastic composites can enable the development of new manufacturing techniques to make the aviation industry more sustainable while at the same time greatly benefit cost-efficient and high-volume production. One of the thermoplastic composite materials that can enable this transition is AS4D/PEKK-FC. In this work, the interlaminar...

Development of a Numerical Framework for Virtual Testing to Support Design of a Next Generation Thermoplastic Multifunctional Fuselage

This work summarizes the recent developments of a numerical framework to predict the mechanical behaviour of thermoplastic composites. It supports the design of a next generation thermoplastic multi-functional fuselage which uses advanced joining techniques such as thermoplastic welding to reduce both weight and cost by limiting the amount of...

Virtual testing of thermoplastic composites: Towards a hybrid simulation-physical testing pyramid

This paper summarizes the implementation of a Virtual Testing methodology in an industrial environment to predict the mechanical behaviour of composite material through the different scales of the conventional physical testing pyramid. A robust Virtual Test Lab allows for the generation of virtual allowables, while advanced interface models...

Flexural behavior of sandwich panels with cellular wood, plywood stiffener/foam and thermoplastic composite core

A series of experimental tests have been carried out on three types of novel sandwich panels mainly designed for application in lightweight mobile housing. Two types of the panels are manufactured entirely from wood-based materials while the third one presents a combination of plywood for surfaces and corrugated thermoplastic composite as a core...