Experimental and numerical analysis on progressive failure of hat-stiffened composite panels under four-point bending: effect of skin stiffness variation

IF 8.3 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, CIVIL

Thin-Walled Structures Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-12 DOI:10.1016/j.tws.2026.114665

Tianyu Wu , Jiafan Feng , Bojian Li , Bowen Gong , Yuzhong Ge , Wenting Ouyang , Huan Wang , Han Wang , Hua-Xin Peng

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Abstract

Hat-stiffened composite panels are critical structural components of aircraft fuselages, resisting significant bending loads under service conditions. Increasing skin stiffness is considered an approach to enhance their bending performance. In this study, specimens with three skin configurations were used, namely SP-12 (12-ply skin), SP-16 (16-ply skin), and SP-26 (26-ply skin). The effect of varying skin stiffness on four-point bending process was investigated through experiment and progressive damage simulation. It was observed that SP-12 exhibited brittle failure characterized by a single load drop, while SP-16 and SP-26 exhibited progressive failure characterized by multiple load drops. Higher skin stiffness significantly enhanced both initial damage load and final debonding failure load, while reducing the bending deformation. This was because increasing skin stiffness required higher load to drive bending deformation, while the interface strength was not enhanced. Varying skin stiffness altered the shear stress distribution, leading to additional debonding and changes in fracture mode at stringer-filler co-curing interface in SP-16 and SP-26. Delamination also occurred at stringer corners in these specimens affected by higher damage load. This also caused severe intralayer damage and cracks under higher load-bearing capability induced by skin stiffness increasing. Based on the above observations, this study provides insights into improving the bending performance of hat-stiffened composite panels.

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帽加筋复合材料板四点弯曲渐进式破坏试验与数值分析：蒙皮刚度变化的影响

帽加筋复合材料板是飞机机身的关键结构部件，在使用条件下可承受巨大的弯曲载荷。增加蒙皮刚度被认为是提高其弯曲性能的一种方法。本研究使用了三种皮肤形态的标本，分别是SP-12（12层）、SP-16（16层）和SP-26（26层）。通过实验和渐进损伤模拟研究了不同蒙皮刚度对四点弯曲过程的影响。SP-12表现为单次载荷下降的脆性破坏，而SP-16和SP-26表现为多次载荷下降的渐进式破坏。较高的蒙皮刚度显著提高了初始损伤载荷和最终脱粘破坏载荷，同时降低了弯曲变形。这是因为增加蒙皮刚度需要更高的载荷来驱动弯曲变形，而界面强度没有提高。表面刚度的变化改变了SP-16和SP-26的剪切应力分布，导致了筋填料共固化界面的额外剥离和断裂模式的变化。在受较高损伤载荷影响的试件中，弦角处也出现分层现象。这也造成了严重的层内损伤和裂缝在较高的承载能力下引起的皮肤刚度增加。基于上述观察结果，本研究为提高帽加筋复合材料板的弯曲性能提供了见解。

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来源期刊

Thin-Walled Structures 工程技术-工程：土木

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

20.30%

发文量

801

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Thin-walled structures comprises an important and growing proportion of engineering construction with areas of application becoming increasingly diverse, ranging from aircraft, bridges, ships and oil rigs to storage vessels, industrial buildings and warehouses. Many factors, including cost and weight economy, new materials and processes and the growth of powerful methods of analysis have contributed to this growth, and led to the need for a journal which concentrates specifically on structures in which problems arise due to the thinness of the walls. This field includes cold– formed sections, plate and shell structures, reinforced plastics structures and aluminium structures, and is of importance in many branches of engineering. The primary criterion for consideration of papers in Thin–Walled Structures is that they must be concerned with thin–walled structures or the basic problems inherent in thin–walled structures. Provided this criterion is satisfied no restriction is placed on the type of construction, material or field of application. Papers on theory, experiment, design, etc., are published and it is expected that many papers will contain aspects of all three.