Design of fiber metal laminate shear panels for ultra-high capacity aircraft

Due to their excellent fatigue characteristics and relatively low density, fiber metal laminates (FML) are considered as candidates for fuselage materials in future generation ultra-high capacity aircraft (UHCA). To exploit the postbuckling behavior, as is the practice in conventional aluminum alloy fuselage structures, an existing engineering design method for postbuckled shear panels was adapted for applications with FML materials. To verify the adapted design methodology, two stiffened FML shear panels were designed and tested until failure. The dimensions of the panels were taken to be representative of an UHCA fuselage structure. In addition, detailed finite element analyses were performed with STAGS to predict panel response during testing. The finite element results showed very good agreement with experimental data, giving confidence in replacing very costly actual panel tests with computer simulations. It was found that the test panel dimensions were outside the region where the current engineering design method for postbuckled panels is valid. To account for this phenomenon, an extension to the current design method is proposed.