Time-varying damage distribution of composite structures for a certain type of aircraft

The damage distribution of the same type of aircraft in similar service environments should be similar. Based on this assumption, to perform the maintenance and repair of aircraft composite structures, the damage of composite structures in a certain type of aircraft were investigated. The time-varying damage distribution model was established and verified based on the damage of a 16-aircraft fleet. The results show that the quantitative proportions of structural damage are 74% for skin delamination, 22% for stringer delamination and 3% for stringer-skin interface debonding. The amount of structural damages increases linearly with service time while the proportion of different damages does not change. As the service time increases, the geometric parameter distribution of damage for the same type of aircraft gradually converges, which can be approximated using the same function. There are certain differences in the proportion and geometric parameter distribution of damages among different components and locations, and the differences do not change over time.