Damage Analysis in Composites

Progressive Damage Analysis of Delamination and Disbond for Aircraft Composite Structures

Investigators

COMAC supervisors & contact details:
Dr Li Xing

Imperial supervisors & contact details:
Dr Bamber Blackman
Professor John Dear

Imperial researchers & contact details:
Dr Jun Liu

Project overview

The main aim of this project will be to investigate the structural and impact performance and related damage development, in the form of delaminations and dis-bonds, in composite and other aircraft materials. Experimental and numerical techniques will be employed to investigate the extent of damage in composite material when subjected to high velocity soft impact (e.g. bird strike, hail impact) and hard impact (e.g. runaway debris). Hybridization (different fibres including carbon and glass fibres) will be explored and different fabric constructions with the aim to achieve better structural and impact performance. Support arrangement and curvature of the composite structures will be investigated. Protection of composite components against high-velocity particle and soft particle will be considered in this project and methods to observe sub-surface impact damage using Non-destructive evaluation (NDE).