Composites Delamination

[prionsa]

How's it goin guys,

I'm doing a study on delamination in composite materials,(Aeronautical Approach) Wondering if anyone has any knowledge of a past important incident where it was a factor?

Cheers.

[Rainboe]

To start you off, try Concorde rudder incidents, and A300 fin problems ex Varadero, Air Transat I think.

[prionsa]

will do, thanks, much appreciated !

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

While not necessarily causal, composite delamination certainly formed part of the investigation into American Airlines flight 587 as well.

[prionsa]

i'll try and look into it, good definitive info is hard to find on the web though,

thanks!

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

I think all three of the incidents mentioned have been the subject of published incident or accident reports.

Try AAIB (UK) for Concorde, or BEA (France), NTSB (USA) for AA587 and TSBC (Canada) for the Air Transat rudder case. AAIB, NTSB and TSBC all publish reports online, and BEA probably do too.

[Mad (Flt) Scientist]

Wikipedia is usually a good place to start - treat it as you would any other secondary or tertiary source, but its a good place to find primary references.

In-Flight Separation of Vertical Stabilizer - American Airlines Flight 587 - Airbus Industrie A300-605R, N14053 - Belle Harbor, New York - November 12, 2001 (http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2004/AAR0404.pdf) - NTSB report on AA587

Loss of Rudder in Flight, Air Transat, Airbus A310-308 C-GPAT, Miami, Florida, (http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/aviation/2005/a05f0047/a05f0047.pdf) - TSBC report

I'll let you find the Concorde stuff for yourself ;)

[prionsa]

aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19920321-0

if you're interested, found a short to the point report for the concorde incident here.

[wobble2plank]

Have a good look at helicopter rotor blade delamination as well, quite a few horror stories to be found there.