Low-Velocity, High-Mass, Wide-Area Blunt Impact on Composite Panels

Impact damage caused by ground vehicles and equipment colliding with the structural components of aircraft is a significant source of damage to commercial aircraft that may go unreported. Most common are blunt impacts from ground maintenance and service vehicles and equipment with attached elastomeric bumpers that protect the aircraft to some degree but may not leave externally visible evidence of an impact. This research examines the types of impact threats to a composite airplane fuselage, impact testing of composite specimens that simulate airplane fuselage specimens, and the visible detectability of the damage. The test program has two distinct aspects: (a) prediction through analysis and (b) small- and large-scale quasistatic indentation testing.

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