Paper number 1296

LONG TERM DURABILITY TESTING OF POLYMER COMPOSITE MATERIALS

C. Arendt¹, M. Brunner², J. Wang³ and T. Cebeci³

1The Boeing Company - Phantom Works
2401 E. Wardlow Rd., Long Beach, CA. 90807-5309, USA
2The Boeing Company
P.O. Box 3707 M/C 13-61, Seattle, WA. 98119, USA
3Department of Aerospace Engineering, California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA. 90840-8304, USA

Summary

This paper discusses the results of the long term polymer composite durability testing program conducted by the Aerospace Engineering department at California State University, Long Beach under sub-contract to The Boeing Company. This testing program was part of the NASA sponsored High Speed Research (HSR) composite durability program. The objective of the program was to develop a composite material system that could withstand the operational requirements of a 300 seat commercially viable aircraft known as the High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) capable of cruising at speeds of Mach 2.4. In order to meet the durability requirements, a representative structural thermo-mechanical loading profile was taken from trans-pacific flight of 4.25 hours. The entire test program was designed to run for one aircraft lifetime or 60,000 hours of real time fatigue testing. The results presented in this report are for the initial check-out run of 3,300 hours.

Keywords

aircraft, durability, high temperature, polymer.