Fibre-reinforced plastic composites - qualification of composite materials.
- Author(s):
Gower, M R L, Sims, G D
- Source:
- Measurement Good Practice Guide No. 64, April 2003
- ISSN:
- 1368-6550
- ISBN:
- NPL Doc. Ref:
- PDB: 3409
- Document Type:
- Guide
- DOI:
Note: An asterisk after an author's name indicates a non-NPL author.
Abstract:
Both composite suppliers and end-users are affected by the high cost of composite materials qualification. Qualifying a product against different user specifications, introducing new materials and finding data for materials selection and preliminary design can all be prohibitively costly due to repetition of testing.This Measurement Good Practice Guide presents a Standard Qualification Plan (SQP) aimed at reducing the substantial costs involved in qualifying fibre-reinforced plastic composite materials. The SQP satisfies the minimum common requirements necessary to allow initial materials selection, quality control and preliminary design to be undertaken. Specifically, it provides guidance on test method selection, panel and specimen preparation and machining, specimen sampling, conditioning and test environments, and statistical analysis of measured data. The results of an associated round-robin validation exercise are briefly presented demonstrating the suitability and robustness of test methods included in the SQP.Collaboration with and support from national regulatory authorities such as the CAA is required, to encourage widespread use of the SQP. In addition, international collaboration (i.e. with the FAA) is key for harmonisation of qualification procedures.
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