About the Damage Tolerance of Composite Structures

Abstract

In aerospace engineering, a structural design has to account for Damage Tolerance (DT). According to the DT design principle, a flawed structure still has to sustain the design load until that flaw becomes discovered and is repaired. The DT analysis is well-established for metallic materials. However, composite structures and conventional metal structures differ significantly in their damage behavior. The DT of composite structures is particularly complex and the available methods are still in their infancy. The particular case of designing damage-tolerant composite structures was addressed within the DLR project KonTeKst, through the work packages of the department of structural mechanics of the Institute for Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems. This topic was addressed in three steps: 1) A theoretical investigation, based on a screening of the literature 2) the development of an analytical DT analysis method 3) experiments on coupons and stiffened panels.