Damage tolerance assessment of composite sandwich panels with localised damage

The work described herein is part of a larger context in which the effect of damage in sandwich composite structures for marine applications has been investigated. The overall aim of this effort has been twofold: to develop and verify existing damage assessment models to be used to assess the effect of damage on marine sandwich structures, and to develop a damage assessment scheme to be used by shipyards, ship owners and navies. More specifically, this paper presents a sub-set of this overall effort looking at impact and indentation damage and its effect on the load carrying capacity of state-of-the-art carbon composite sandwich panels for marine applications. Damage types are modelled based on physical observations from tests. Testing is then performed on different scales in order to validate the models. The overall aim is to use such models to produce information that can be used for decision-making at two levels. The first is to evaluate the damage tolerance of ship structural components and thus to calculate the size and extent of damage that a component can have without risk of growth or failure at ultimate local or global loads on the entire ship. The second is to have information at hand to decide if, and when, a structural part needs to be repaired if damage has been detected. A scheme developed for this purpose is presented herein. Finally the paper will briefly describe a common framework for damage assessment in composite sandwich structures. Herein, models are used in conjunction with the design specifics and functional requirements to create a scheme for repair decisions. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.