Date of Award
Spring 2011
Access Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Department
Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
Eric v. K. Hill
First Committee Member
Fady F. Barsoum
Second Committee Member
Anthony M. Gunasckera
Abstract
The goal of this research was to accurately predict the ultimate compressive load of impact damaged graphite/epoxy coupons using a Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) neural network and multivariate statistical regression analysis (MSRA). An optimized use of these data treatment tools allowed the generation of a simple, physically understandable equation that predicts the ultimate failure load of an impacted damaged coupon based uniquely on the acoustic emissions it emits at low proof loads. Acoustic emission (AE) data were collected using two 150 kHz resonant transducers which detected and recorded the AE activity given off during compression to failure of thirty-four impacted 24-ply bidirectional woven cloth laminate graphite/epoxy coupons. The AE quantification parameters duration, energy and amplitude for each AE hit were input to the Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) neural network to accurately classify the material failure mechanisms present in the low proof load data. The number of failure mechanisms from the first 30% of the loading for twenty-four coupons were used to generate a linear prediction equation which yielded a worst case ultimate load prediction error of 16.17%, just outside of the ±15% B-basis allowables, which was the goal for this research. Particular emphasis was placed upon the noise removal process which was largely responsible for the accuracy of the results.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Grégoire, Alexandre David, "Ultimate Compression After Impact Load Prediction in Graphite/Epoxy Coupons Using Neural Network and Multivariate Statistical Analyses" (2011). Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. 77.
https://commons.erau.edu/edt/77
