Design and manufacturing concepts for thermoplastic structures

Results to date on the application of two manufacturing techniques, fiber placement and single diaphragm/coconsolidation, to produce cost-effective, thermoplastic composite (TPC), primary fuselage structure are presented. Applications relative to fuselage upper cover structure indicate potential cost savings relative to conventional approaches. Progress is also presented on efforts concerned with other design details which take advantage of thermoplastic composites such as fastener less stiffener/frame attachments. In addition, results are presented on the development and verification testing of a composite lug analysis program which incorporates through-the-thickness effects.