Damage Tolerance of Composites

Abstract

The damage tolerance issue in composites is driven by the requirement for and implementation of a structural integrity criterion for a structural system. A key element in the design philosophy for damage tolerance is related to the interpretation of the damage state as occurring from any of the following typical sources of damage: Fabrication/Processing; In Service/Field Problems; Typical Defects. Some of the typical damage states which occur from the damage sources cited are discussed. All of these damage states degrade the structural system and focus on the need to develop a capability to predict and assess the extent of damage growth, residual strength, and fatigue life of the composite structure. Such assessments require experimental measures as well as analytical tools. A review of some of these experimental techniques and analytical predictions for one of the most severe of the damage states, the in-service impact problem, is discussed below.