The DEMONSTRATE program comprises two basic aspects:
- Full-scale testing of three airframe section demonstrators: two metallic fuselage panels, incorporating the newly developed 4th generation Al-Li Alloys and the related manufacturing methods, in static and fatigue loading conditions, as well as a thermoplastic fuselage panel with an integrated stiffening structure in quasi-static loading.
- Demonstration of the structural integrity of these representative aircraft fuselage panels, by advanced simulation methodology correlated with experimental data.
Among the technologies that have been planned to be developed and matured within the duration of the project, which will result to the realization of an efficient, reliable and cost-effective test bench suitable for the full-scale testing of curved aeronautical panels are:
- The development of a virtual testing methodology for the definition of the stiffened panels boundary and loading conditions, such that they are fully representative of the aircraft full-barrel fuselage in flight loading conditions.
- The further development of an innovative, cost-efficient, easily adaptable fuselage panel full-scale test bench concept, capable to introduce the desired representative boundary/loading conditions.
- The development and/or adaptation of a wide range of novel measurement techniques, explored to monitor the panel pre-buckling / post buckling deformation and to capture onset / growth of damage.
- The development and application of advanced simulation methodologies, focusing on specific issues related to the panels novel material systems and their integral stiffening concepts.
The developed test bench will be used for the execution of static tests on advanced metallic and thermoplastic curved integrally stiffened full-scale panels, representative of a business jet fuselage structure and, also, for the execution of an endurance test on an integrally stiffened 4th generation Al-Li curved panel, under a realistic load spectrum representative of the aircraft mission profile. The test will be exploited in the validation of the multi-scale simulation models, focusing on the predictions of buckling / post-buckling deformation, as well as on the crack initiation and damage growth.
