A Stitched Blade-Stiffened RFI Composite Panel under Shear Loading

Abstract

This report summarises the work conducted at the CRC-ACS investigating the effect of stitching on the post-buckling strength of a large blade-stiffened panel. These panels were manufactured by the resin film infusion (RFI) process. The skin was made of E-glass fibre and the stiffener made of carbon fibre fabrics. The stiffener was stitched onto the skin using two types of stitching patterns, straight and zigzag. The whole preform was then impregnated with Araldite LY556 epoxy resin during the RFI process. FE analysis was conducted for determination of the panel configuration and buckling behaviour. Shear testing was conducted on these panels and performance was evaluated. For comparison, unstitched panels were also manufactured and tested. The testing results clearly showed that stitching significantly improves post-buckling performance of large panels.

Keywords

stitching stiffener RFI carbon composite shear loading

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