The in-plane compressive behaviour of thin-skin stiffened composite panels with a stress concentrator in the form of an open hole or low velocity impact damage is examined analytically. A fracture mechanics model, developed initially to predict notched compressive strength, was applied to estimate the compression-after-impact strength of a stiffened panel; in the analysis the impact damage is r...

Among various efforts pursued to produce fuel efficient vehicles, light weight engineering (i.e. the use of low-density structurally-efficient materials, the application of advanced manufacturing and joining technologies and the design of highly-integrated, multi-functional components/sub-assemblies) plays a prominent role. In the present work, a multi-disciplinary design optimization methodolo...

As global interest in using engineered wood products in tall buildings intensifies due to the “green” credential of wood, it is expected that more tall wood buildings will be designed and constructed in the coming years. This, however, brings new challenges to the designers. One of the major challenges is how to design lateral load-resisting systems (LLRSs) with sufficient stiffness, strength, ...

In this paper we examine the design of metallic and composite aircraft wings in order to assess how the use of composites modifies the trade-off between structural weight and drag. In order to perform this assessment, we use a gradient-based aerostructural design optimization framework that combines a high-fidelity finite-element structural model that includes panel-level design variables with ...

Due to the ever wider use of composite materials within aerospace applications, fireproof tests get recently an increased attention. Numerical simulation is expected in the coming years to accompany engineers in their design work to increase the chance of success in the fireproof certification tests. The current research focuses on the numerical investigation of a premixed methane-air flame imp...

Equilibrium moisture content (EMC) as a function of relative humidity (RH) was measured in oriented strandboard. particleboard, medium-density fiberboard, hardboard, high pressure laminates, and solid wood. The measurements were made in both adsorption and desorption at 2 9 2 . The EMCRH data were fit to Nelson's sorption isotherm. It was found that Nelson's model can be used to describe the ex...

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have been increasingly used in spacecraft applications. Spacecraft may encounter highenergy-density X-ray radiation in outer space that can cause severe damage. To protect spacecraft from such unexpected damage, it is essential to predict the dynamic behavior of CFRP composites under X-ray radiation. In this study, we developed an in-house three...

This paper describes the design of a test rig to apply a representative pressure load to full-scale composite sandwich secondary aircraft structure. A generic panel was designed with features to represent those in composite sandwich secondary aircraft structure. To provide full-field strain data from the panels, the test rig was designed for use with optical measurement techniques such as therm...

For the future design of smart aerospace structures, the development and application of a reliable, real-time and automatic monitoring and diagnostic technique is essential. Thus, with distributed sensor networks, a real-time automatic structural health monitoring (SHM) technique is designed and investigated to monitor and predict the locations and force magnitudes of unforeseen foreign impacts...