Influence of manufacturing defects on the mechanical behaviour of all-composite wing under service load conditions

In this paper, the damage behaviour of aerospace composite structures has been studied. The analysed structure is an all-composite wing with inter-laminar manufacturing induced damage. The manufacturing induced delaminations are located at the leading edge on the extrados and in the area near the fuselage. Different analyses have been performed to correctly predict the pre-existent damages evolution under service loading conditions. Preliminary linear buckling analyses have been performed to check for instability of the delaminations under service loads; then the risk of delaminations' propagation has been evaluated by means of a Virtual Crack Closure Technique based approach.