Composite structural beams and method
AssigneeGeneral Dynamics Corporation
InventorsJohn A. Fant, Billie E. Chitwood, Marvin S. Howeth
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Strong, lightweight structural shapes or structures adapted for anistropic load bearing useful as structural beams or stiffeners for other structures, e.g., aircraft and which prevent or have improved resistance to forces tending to peel apart the structures, i.e., incipient peel. The shapes are fabricated from plicated laminates of strips or sheets of resinous, filament reinforced, composite materials having high strength and low weight. Fabrication of the shapes is carried out in such manner that upon curing of the resin the resultant stiffener shapes are capable of distributing loading forces so as to reduce localization of stresses.
Claims22
A composite structural beam having a cap construction in which portions of the beam web member are effectively held to stiffener means forming a part of a cap member of the beam to prevent separation by peeling of the web member from the cap member and formed from a plurality of reinforcement filaments and polymeric matrix material bonded together into an integral load resisting beam structure combining high strength with low weight comprising (the numbers in parentheses referring to the drawings):
- a first cap member (74) extending in the longitudinal direction of the beam and containing a plurality of high strength filaments;
- a second cap member (76) extending in the longitudinal direction of the beam and containing a plurality of high strength filaments;
- a shear web member (72) containing high tensile strength filaments connecting between said cap members and lying in a plurality of planes to form corrugations therein, opposite ends of the corrugations located respectively at said first and second cap members;
- each of said cap members having therein stiffener means (78) extending generally parallel to the length of the beam, said stiffener means comprising a plurality of high strength reinforcement filaments for providing in said cap member the requisite resistance to tension and compression forces thereon;
- said filaments embedded in resinous polymeric material for bonding the filaments in the desired configuration and transmitting the loading forces between said filaments;
- and
- said web member having extended therefrom at least at one of said cap members a plurality of tabs folded over said stiffener means at said cap member so that the stiffener means is positioned between said tabs and adjacent ends of said corrugations;
- said tabs and said stiffener means together comprising said one of said cap members;
- whereby co-curing of the said resinous web member and said one of said cap members holds the tabs of said cap member over the stiffener means thereof so as to prevent loading forces on said beam from separating said stiffener means from the web member by peeling.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.