Lightweight sandwich composite structures exhibit high strength and bending stiffness and have been used in various load-bearing aerospace structures. A primary weakness of these structures is the low interfacial strength that can result in the disbonding between the facesheet and the core. Through-thickness reinforcement techniques, such as stitching, can be utilized to improve the interfacial strength of sandwich composites. This study focuses on fabrication and structural testing of stitched sandwich composite main landing gear (MLG) strut doors. The MLG strut doors are constructed from carbon fiber non-crimp fabric facesheets and closed-cell foam core that are stitched using a modified lock stitching technique. To assess the effects of stitching, two doors were fabricated, one with and one without through-the-foam stitching. A vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process was used to infuse the doors. The strut doors were subjected to quasi-static loading, and the mechanical responses of the stitched and unstitched strut doors are presented.

À haute température, l'oxygène réagit avec la matrice organique du matériau composite, ce qui change les propriétés du matériau et réduit la résistance à la rupture globale. Mais la compréhension de la dégradation du composite stratifié oxydé, en particulier son comportement à l'échelle du pli, est aujourd'hui limitée et phénoménologique. Les travaux dans cette thèse ont été réalisés pour donner notre contribution sur les aspects méthodologiques de ce sujet. Des essais sont réalisés pour caractériser expérimentalement le comportement d'éprouvette oxydée : en particulier, un nouveau essai, l'essai 'oxy-délaminage', a été développé pour identifier la ténacité du matériau composite vieilli. Une stratégie a été proposée d'étudier le problème à partir des propriétés de la matrice oxydée à l'échelle fibre/matrice et jusqu'à la reproduction et la prédiction du comportement de fissuration transversale des échantillons oxydés à échelle méso via un procédé d'homogénéisation. / At high temperature, the oxygen reacts with the organic matrix of composite material, which changes the material properties and reduces the resistance to global failure. But understanding on the degradation of the oxidized composite laminate, particularly its damage behavior, is now limited and phenomenological. Work in this thesis has been made to give our contribution to the methodological aspects of this topic. Tests are performed to characterize experimentally the behaviors of the oxidized specimens: in particular, a new test test oxy-delamination ', was developed to identify the tenacity of composite material aged. A strategy has been proposed to study the problem from the properties the oxidized matrix at the fiber/matrix scale up to the reproduction and predicting the behavior of transverse cracking of the sample at the scale of a ply via a homogenization process.

Thesis (M.S.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from PDF title page; viewed on Jan. 21, 2010. Major professor: Dr. Faysal Kolkailah. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering." "December 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-93).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 126 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-126).

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