Thermal-structural panel buckling tests

A titanium-matrix-composite (TMC) hat-stiffened panel of 61 cm sq area and 3.175 cm thick was nondestructively tested to 649 C to examine its buckling characteristics. Compressive loads were applied to the panel in a 978.6 kN uniaxial load frame system. High-temperature testing was performed using quartz lamp heating. A single-strain-age force/stiffness buckling prediction technique was developed to predict panel buckling loads. For the monolithic panel, these test predictions correlated within 10 percent with a finite-element buckling analyses performed elsewhere. Comparisons between force/stiffness predictions and analyses for the TMC panel are in progress.