Title: Characterization of Transverse Impact Damage and Internal Contamination of In-Service Composite Aircraft Skins

Authors: Justin T. Massey, Andrew Ellison, Hyonny Kim

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/c.22.0152

Abstract: Aerospace composite structures can be highly susceptible to transverse impact damage which potentially leads to delaminations between plies and a significant reduction in strength. Transverse impact damage on in-service aerospace structures are also often exposed to extreme service environments and are often in close proximity to operational contaminants (fuel, hydraulic fluids, etc.), resulting in an unknown internal surface chemistry that may prevent adhesion when performing composite repair, resin injection methods. Therefore, understanding the combination of service environment exposure and physical impact damage geometry from actual in-service impacts is important for development and implementation of new repair procedures. This study seeks to utilize current Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) methods including: X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) and Ultrasonic Testing (UT) along with chemical analysis methods to characterize impact damage taken from previously in-service damaged aircraft skins. Two and three dimensional NDE results are compared to destructive photomicrographic inspection to verify damage characterization, including determination if multi-level delamination characterization is achievable with current and newly developed NDE processes. Mass spectroscopy results were collected to determine if known contaminants from in-service environments entered the impact damage areas. These new characterization methods and results will be utilized within a follow-on effort to develop an impact damage repair method.

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Conference: CAMX 2022

Publication Date: 2022/10/17

SKU: TP22-0000000152

Pages: 14

Price: $28.00