Abstract
The properties of composite materials, when compared to those of metallic materials, are highly variable due to many factors including the batch-to-batch variability of raw materials, the prepreg manufacturing process, material handling, part-fabrication techniques, ply-stacking sequences, environmental conditions, and test procedures. It is therefore necessary to apply reliable statistical-analysis techniques to obtain the design allowables of composite materials. A new composite-material qualification process has been developed by the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) consortium to yield the lamina-design allowables of composite materials according to standardized coupon-level tests and statistical techniques; moreover, the generated allowables database can be shared among multiple users without a repeating of the full qualification procedure by each user. In 2005, NASA established the National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP) with the purpose of refining and enhancing the AGATE process to a self-sustaining level to serve the entire aerospace industry. In this paper, the statistical techniques and procedures for the generation of the allowables of aerospace composite materials will be discussed with a focus on the pooling-across-environments method.
