Assembly damage assessment of composite plates using uncertainty quantification and statistical analysis

During the assembly process, deformation occurs in composite thin-walled parts, leading to damage at the hole connections of their single-longitudinal splice (SLS) joints. To predict assembly damage in the design process, it is usually necessary to combine uncertainty analysis with finite element analysis (FEA) methods. However, this field has limited progress due to the large size of the analyzed objects relative to their span and the large number of constraints that increase computational costs and complexity. In this study, we employed a linear elastic method to analyze the assembly process of thin-walled components. We achieved the uncertainty propagation (UP) and uncertainty quantification (UQ) of profile deviation random fields by using sub-modeling techniques, and obtained the stress distribution around the connection holes. The validity of the method was confirmed through a comparison with a full-process FEA of a three-hole SLS model. By integrating our method with the Hashin damage criterion, we proposed a statistical analysis approach for predicting assembly failure in SLS joints. The results demonstrated that considering only the profile deviation of the composite panel wall had a significant impact on material damage.