Design and Failure of Material Systems Under Multi-Axial Loads (MMS5)

 

Industrial Advisory Group (IAG)

 

The second meeting of the IAG took place on

Thursday 18^th September 2003 at UMIST, Manchester

 

 

Present:

 

Alan Hickman, Quotec

Geoff Eckold, AEAT

Martin Wall, AEAT

Graham Sims, NPL

Andreas Obst, ESA

Gordon Bishop, NetComposites

John McCarthy,

Pete Soden, UMIST

Daniel Spagni, UMIST

Andrew Long, Nottingham University

Angelo Maligno, Nottingham University

Sam Kaddour, Qinetiq

John Cooke, Qinetiq

 

Apologies Received from:

 

Nigel Keen, Reichold

Roger Davidson, CTG Ltd

John Bristow, CAA

John Cantrill

Robin Mableson, Vosper

Nigel Fawcett, Ford Motor Co.

Richard Lee, AEAT

Caroline Williamson, Qinetiq

Neil McCartney, NPL

Peter Thornburrow, St. Gobain

Martin Wilson, Bombardier

Guy from Williams F1 team

PRESENTATIONS

 

1.         Andreas Obst (ESTEC/ESA) from the ESTEC Centre of the European Space Agency (ESA) at Noordwijk in the Netherlands reviewed the use of composites and the interest in material multi-axial behaviour in the programs of ESA.  He focused within ESTEC on the work of the Structure Section which had a project support and an R&D function within ESA for all structural issues.  He reviewed ESA projects in the field of large satellites (XMM, Alphabus), telecommunications platforms and launchers (Ariane 2010, RLV 2020) before concentrating on material and structural issues arising from the design and operation of tanks and lines, antennas.

             ESTEC was currently supporting a number of composite failure studies which were relevant to MMS5 and in particular the TRP study carried out by HPS in Germany (www.hps.com) which included a critical review of existing failure criteria and of available test data for CFRP and CMC, together with a validation experimental programme and the development of design guidelines.  Dr. Obst concluded by reviewing some technological gaps which existed in the field of structural integrity for aerospace composite structures and in particular:

•            Tools and design and test methodologies applicable to novel materials (silico-matrix composites, metal-composite) and filament wound structures

•            Multi-axial fabrics

•            Inflatable structures

 2.         John Cooke (Qinetiq) reviewed the results of Qinetiq’s multi-axial test programme Phases 1 (Max 1), 2 (Max 2) and 3 (Max 3).  The Max 1 and 2 programmes had been initiated in 1993 with the purchase of a bi-axial test machine with a loading capability of 500kN on each of four independent actuators.  The results of Max 1 and 2 were now in the public domain.  A further phase of the work (Max 3) took place over the period 1997-2000 which benefited from the availability of a larger bi-axial machine of 1500kN capability.  The results of Max 3 will be released in the public domain in 2005.

 3.         Sam Kaddour (Qinetiq) presented a large study that he had recently completed on FRP under Tri-axial Loading.

              The document will be available on the MMS5 web-site.

 4.         Gordon Sims (NPL) presented the ongoing R&D activities at NPL within the DTI Measurements for Materials Systems programme and the VAMAS (Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standard) G7 programme (www.vamas.org)  and in particular the projects under TWA5 which were concerned with Polymer Composites.

             This work was feeding directly into ISO and CEN standardisation activities (e.g. ISO/FDIS 13003: 2001, EN 13706:2002).

             The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had supported the establishment of the Materials Solutions website (www.materialsolutions.info) which focuses on polymer composites.  The site provides a number of tools which are applicable to problems associated with materials measurement and testing, standards, design and applications.

 5.         John Cook (Qinetiq) reported on the experimental programme which was carried out within the MMS5 project on samples which had been provided by Vetrotex St.Gobain (Twintex panels of co-mingled glass/thermoplastic fabric) and VT Group Halmatic which is part of the VT Group is manufacturing the 90m mast for Mirabella V, the world’s biggest sloop.

 6.         Andrew Long (University of Nottingham) outlined the tests which were due to be carried out at Nottingham on the Formax engineered multi-axial fabric made by Formax UK and on samples supplied by Dowty Aerospace Propellors.

 7.         Peter Soden (UMIST) presented a synopsis of the World Wide Failure Exercise.  This ambitious project was concerned with determining the accuracy of current methods used for predicting the strength of composite laminates.  The work was organised by Mike Hinton (Qinetiq), Peter Soden (UMIST and Sam Kaddour (Qinetiq).

             The results and the analysis of this coordinated study have now been published in special issues of the International Journal Composites Science and Technology.

             The full report will be posted on the MMS5 website.

 8.         Martin Wall (AEAT) noted that AEAT had aquired the URL www.mms5.co.uk  for the project website.This gives fast access to the websites for both MMS5 projects as well as a simple email address info@mms5.co.uk  to get information on the projects.

In addition, a dedicated IAG Noticeboard has been established for the MMS5 project accessed from the website www.mms5.co.uk  selecting Members Area , using userID: mmsuser and password: iagmms5. This will allow IAG members to download copies of presentations, details and meeting information. A significant amount of information is already on the noticeboard including presentations from the 1st IAG meeting at Culham. It is intended that the noticeboard is a common noticeboard giving industrial members and participants access to information arising from both projects.

9.        Geoff Eckold (AEAT) and Martin Wall (AEAT) presented the structure and user interface of the Interactive Knowledge Base (IKB) which was being developed at AEA Technology to incorporate the key data resulting from the MMS5 project and provide an interface for users to select suitable design methods. A demonstration was given of the current version of the IKB.

The structure of this IKB was similar to the HOIS 2000 Knowledge Base which had been developed for a previous project on defect assessment and an adaptation of software developed on the MMS15 Project. Further details were available on the AEA MMS5 website at www.mms5.co.uk  together with a link to a development version of the IKB for MMS5 at http://www.ndt.aeat.co.uk/noticeboards/mms5iag/ikb/  using the same userID and password as for the IAG Noticeboard.

IAG members were asked to comment on the subjects and topics for the Browse feature of the knowledge base as well as the questions to be used in the recommend a Design Method RADM feature. Reports had been distributed prior to the meeting on this, also accessible from the website.

 10.      Geoff Eckold (AEAT) reviewed the role played by design standards in the development of new technologies and their acceptance by the industry.  One of the objectives of MMS5 was to address the requirements of multi-axial test data in the context of design standards and codes of practice.  A number of standards (ISO 14692, pr EN 13121) were briefly reviewed.

             The issue of composite repairs for pipes and vessels was highlighted.

 11.        Date and Place of Third Meeting

              The third meeting of the IAG will take place on Thursday 11 March 2004 at the University of Nottingham, UK.