Engineering Practices for Composite Aircraft Structural Damage Tolerance and Aging

This seminar will cover damage tolerance and aging principles for composite and bonded aircraft structures, including the associated design, structural substantiation, and maintenance practices. The importance of stringent material and process controls applied in production and field repair will also be emphasized. Polymer composite aircraft structural applications have generally had a very good service history, indicating that structures can be designed, repeatably manufactured, and safely maintained for the life of the aircraft. Damage threats, environmental effects, and degradation mechanisms have been studied to develop material screening methods, design guidelines & criteria, manufacturing quality controls, and structural analysis & test protocol for certification. Over 50 years of applications, these efforts have demonstrated environmental & mechanical fatigue resistance and operational damage tolerance, aligned with existing maintenance practices.