Flight service environmental effects on composite materials and structures

Abstract

NASA Langley and the U.S. Army have jointly sponsored programs to assess the effects of realistic flight environments and ground-based exposure on advanced composite materials and structures. Composite secondary structural components were initially installed on commercial transport aircraft in 1973; secondary and primary structural components were installed on commercial helicopters in 1979; and primary structural components were installed on commercial aircraft in the mid-to-late 1980's. Over 5.3 million total component flight hours have been accumulated on 350 composite components since 1973. Service performance, maintenance characteristics, and residual strength of numerous composite components are reported. In addition to data on flight components; 10-year ground-based exposure test results on material coupons are reported. Comparisons between flight and ground-based environmental effects for several composite material systems are also presented. Test results indicate excellent in-service performance with the composite components during the 15 year evaluation period. Good correlation between ground-based material performance and operational structural performance has been achieved.