Aircraft Structures & Materials 4

Course Co-ordinator: Dr. C. B. York

Lead Department: Aerospace Engineering Other departments: None

Level of course: Level 4 Credit: 10 Credits Course code: 1A5X

Total notional learning hours: Lectures 20 hours

Formal tutoring 5 hours
Private study 80 hours
Final exam 2 hours
When taught: Second Semester

Total scheduled teaching hours for the course, specifying the methods used:

Formal lectures 20 hours

Prerequisites: Aircraft Structures and Materials 3; Aircraft Structural Analysis and Design 3
Co-requisites: None
Excluded combinations: None

Summative assessment: Examination (2 hours): 100%

Formative assessment:

Tutorial exercises, backed up by scheduled tutorial sessions at which problems can be addressed.

Exam diet: May/June

Exam duration: 2 hours

Recommended Textbooks.

No particular text is recommended as essential for purchase.

The following text books are available on-line via the departmental web pages:

Astronautical structures Handbook - Volume 1 (1975). NASA-TM-X-73305.

Astronautical structures Handbook - Volume 2 (1975). NASA-TM-X-73306.
Astronautical structures Handbook - Volume 3 (1975). NASA-TM-X-73307.

And any of the following may be consulted in the University Library:

Bruhn, E. F. (1973). Analysis and design of flight vehicle structures. Jacobs, Indianapolis.
Hyer, M. W. (1998). Stress analysis of fibre-reinforced composite materials. McGraw-Hill, Singapore. ISBN:
0-07-115983-5
Jones, R. M. (1999). Mechanics of Composite Materials. Taylor & Francis, London. ISBN: 1-56032-712-X
Megson, T.H.G. (1999). Aircraft Structures. 3rd Edition. Arnold, London. ISBN: 0-340-70588-4
Niu, M. C. (1999). Airframe Structural Design: Practical design information and data on aircraft structures. 2nd
Edition. Conmilit Press, Hong Kong. ISBN: 962-7128-09-0
Niu, M. C. (1999). Airframe Stress Analysis & Sizing. 2nd Edition. Conmilit Press, Hong Kong. ISBN: 962-
7128-08-2
Niu, M. C. (2000). Composite Airframe Structures. 3rd Edition. Conmilit Press, Hong Kong. ISBN: 962-7128-
06-6

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

Syllabus:

Introduction to composite materials.

Current manufacturing methods with resins and fibres.
Design properties of fibre composites and metals with comparisons.
Stiffness and compliance matrices for orthotropic laminates in fibre-aligned and general coordinate systems.
Derivation of stresses and strains in laminates.
Buckling of struts and frame structures.
Derivation and Use of Stability functions.
Buckling of plates.
Closed form solution for buckling of a simply supported compression loaded composite panel.
Post-buckling response (diagonal tension).

Aims:

To provide familiarity with important ‘advanced hand methods’ of structural analysis.

To develop an understanding of the behaviour of structural materials under various load systems.
To provide familiarity with the available experimental techniques for assessment of composite material
properties.
To examine the issues involved in the selection of composite materials for aircraft structures.
To provide an introduction to stressing and sizing of composite components.
To develop an analytical treatment of buckling and post buckling behaviour in frames and plate structures.

Learning objectives:

Critically assess the benefits and penalties associated with using fibre composites in place of metals.
Calculate strains and stresses in an orthotropic laminate given a set of applied loads.
Calculate the initial buckling load for complex frame structures.
Calculate the initial buckling stress for composite plates.

Minimum requirement for the award of credit

Grade D

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