Combined Impact and Fatigue Loading in CFRP
Effects of the timing of an impact event during cyclic loading of composite aircraft structures
C.C.J. van Diën (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
Dimitrios Zarouchas – Mentor (TU Delft - Structural Integrity & Composites)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
This research experimentally investigates the effects of an impact event during fatigue loading of a CFRP structure. Open-hole specimens were impacted in-situ during a short interruption of a tension-tension cyclic loading program. The impact was aimed directly below the central hole, with the critical fatigue damage path being left and right of this hole. A combination of digital image correlation (DIC), acoustic emission (AE) and C-scan measurements was used to measure the material response and damage patterns. The results indicate that while an impact caused the total amount of damage to increase as one would expect, its effect on the damage along the critical path depends on the timing of the impact. Only an impact before fatigue clearly accelerated fatigue damage accumulation leading to a shorter fatigue life. In contrast, impacting specimens at a later moment during fatigue loading had no effect on this critical damage accumulation.