Improved Postbuckling Simulation for Design of Fibre Composite Fuselage Structures - The POSICOSS Project

The European Commission is funding within its 5th Framework Programme the project POSICOSS, which copes with the demand to design fibre composite fuselage structures for postbuckling under ultimate load. The main objective of the work is the evelopment of improved, fast and reliable procedures for postbuckling analysis and design of fibre composite stiffened panels of future fuselage structures. They are unconditionally needed, because so far postbuckling calculations are extremely time consuming and as such not applicable for design. Another substantial objective is the creation of comprehensive experimental data bases for the purpose of validation. The project comprises four essential technical results: Material properties, test results for buckling and postbuckling of stiffened CFRP panels and cylinders (CFRP stands for Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic), improved simulation procedures for buckling and postbuckling of stiffened fibre composite panels, and design guidelines for stiffened fibre composite panels. Examples representative for these results are given.