Structural Integrity and Durability of Advanced Composites

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Structural integrity and the implementation of engineering composite materials

P.W.R. Beaumont     Cambridge University Engineering Department, Cambridge, UK

Abstract

Predicting precisely where a crack will develop in a material under stress and exactly when catastrophic fracture of the component will occur is one the oldest unsolved mysteries in the design and building of large-scale engineering structures. Where human life depends upon engineering ingenuity, the burden of testing to prove a ‘fracture-safe design’ is immense. When human life depends upon structural integrity as an essential design requirement, it takes ten thousand material test coupons per composite laminate configuration to evaluate an airframe plus loading to ultimate failure ...