A fracture mechanics based energy approach for the determination of the damage tolerance of a composite wing box: Sensitivity Analysis to the Delamination Dimension and Position

Nowadays composite material structures are widely adopted in the aerospace field however their capabilities cannot be best exploited due to uncertainties in the definition of their behaviour in presence of damage. Aimed at overcoming this lack, within the Task 2.3 of the CESAR project a finite element model of a composite wing box, fully parametric in terms of both geometry and damage location and extension, has been built and a fracture mechanics based approach has been defined and implemented in ANSYS© in order to measure the damage tolerance of the structure under consideration. The sensitivity of the wing box to the damage has been analysed by using the model developed and by considering several configurations which differ from one another in position and dimension of the debonded area. As major outcome of the analysis performed, critical areas in terms of damage tolerance have been identified on the basis of the computed growth of initiation load.