High-Speed Civil Transport Hybrid Laminate Sandwich Fuselage Panel Test
SourceHybrid laminates consisting of interspersed titanium foils and carbon fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composite (PMC) plies are among the leading material candidates for High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) primary structure. To demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating large adhesive bonded honeycomb sandwich subcomponents with hybrid laminate facesheets, a 1.9-meter radius × 3.0-meter long curved panel representative of the HSCT forward fuselage was built and tested. The subcomponent was first tested to twice the equivalent constant-load amplitude fatigue design service objective (66 000 cycles). The panel ran for another full design service objective with longitudinal notches, plus an additional 2 500 cycles with a circumferential notch. Finally, the panel was successfully tested to approximate regulatory residual strength load requirements (1.15 × max. fatigue loads). These tests demonstrated at a subcomponent level the durability of titanium/carbon fiber-reinforced PMC laminates and confirmed the hypothesis that fiber bridging can significantly retard the rate at which damage progresses from a crack-like defect in these materials.