• Composites Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.64-69
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• 2007

Matrix dominant properties of composites are largely degraded under harmful environments such as temperature and humidity. Therefore we should consider the harmful environmental factors in the design of an UAV integral fuel tank subjected to high temperature and high humidity. The harmful environment experiment was performed for carbon/epoxy composites made of a unidirectional prepreg USN175B, and a plain woven fabric prepreg WSN3. The immersion experiment was performed under $90^{\circ}C$. The specimens were tested when the weight gam of specimen was saturated. The specimens were tested under $74^{\circ}C$ to obtain tensile and inplane shear properties. The results showed that the matrix dominant properties were extremely degraded by hygrothermal environment. To consider the variability of load, the anti-optimization method was applied. By using this method, the worst load case was found by comparing the load convex model and stability boundary. The stability boundary was obtained by analysis of the integral wing fuel tank of UAV using degraded properties. To do this, it was known that the worst load case of the integral wing fuel tank was the hovering mode load case.