Bridging the scales: from the toughness of small specimens to the damage tolerance of large aerospace panels

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The introduction of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) for major structural parts in commercial aircraft leads to the need to predict the mechanical response, including failure and damage tolerance for these materials. The difficulty in predicting accurately failure and damage tolerance lies both on the complexity of the failure processes and in the scale at which they occur. In fact, the scales at which failure must be analysed (micro meters) are much smaller than the typical aerospace component scale (metres), and it is well known that strength and toughness depend on component size.This proposal will address the above, by focusing on three challenges. Firstly, the project will assess how tough these composites are at opposing the propagation of cracks which break entire panels (mixed mode translaminar fracture toughness). In continuation, the failure processes will be looked at in detail, so that suitable micromechanical models may be developed. Finally, the project will focus on developing computer codes which will assist Engineers in more effectively designing composite components.