Out-of-Plane Restraint under Tension In-Plane Loading

The development and description of a test fixture designed to restrict out-of-plane motion in the center region of tension-loaded carbon-epoxy panels are presented herein. The test fixture was used to impose displacement conditions consistent with those in an analytical tool being developed to predict panel behavior in the vicinity of a central notch, which included the assumption that there would be no out-of-plane displacement and no buckling. However, pretest analysis using finite element models for a panel loaded without any out-of-plane restraint in the region of the notch indicated that with an imperfection magnitude equal to 20 percent of the thickness of the thin-skin panel, an unacceptable amount of out-of-plane deformation would occur as Poisson effects induced compression loads in the region of the notch. Therefore, to validate this tool in a test program, a restraint fixture which would suppress out-of-plane motion was required. The panel could not be encased in restraining plates because instrumentation and visibility were required in the vicinity of the notch. Therefore, a fixture that would restrict out-of-plane motion while still allowing access to the surface of the panel at the notch edges for instrumentation and line-of-sight access for cameras was required. To satisfy these requirements, a fixture was designed to restrict only out-of-plane motion near the center of the notch. Two 1.78-m-long test panels were loaded in tension to failure using this fixture. Out-of-plane deformations were not directly measured during testing, so back-to-back strain gages were used to obtain an indication of buckling. Strain results indicated that the restraint fixture performed as designed and buckling did not occur.