Testing and numerical investigations of hybrid composite for flight control surfaces in manufacturing variability contest

Abstract

The design and certification of composite structures is based on the building block approach (BBA), following a bottom-up procedure. Starting from the bottom level of Rouchon’s pyramid of test, thousands of coupons need to be produced to determine design allowables and capture manufacturing, geometrical and microstructure variability values. The numerical approach provides desirable data to be confirmed by a reduced testing campaign, especially for the preliminary design process stages and material selection.In this paper a carbon fibers reinforced composite with epoxide resin used for aerospace application has been analyzed, in form of both fabric and unidirectional tape to validate the numerical model considering Salver (of MA Group company) manufacturing process variability data. Hybrid laminates composed of unidirectional plies and woven fabric layers have been tested to pursue a tailored approach based on design guidelines and stress requirements for aircraft flight control surfaces. Benchmarking the experimental-numerical test results allows to assess the statistical reliability of the proposed method.