Introduction
This book deals with structural failure (induced by mechanical,
aerodynamic, acoustic and aero-thermal, loads, etc.) of modern aerospace
vehicles, in particular high-speed aircraft, solid propellant rocket
systems and hypersonic flight vehicles, where structural integrity,
failure prediction and service life assessment are particularly
challenging, due to the increasingly more demanding mission requirements
and the use of non-traditional materials, such as non-metallic composites,
in their construction. Prediction of the complex loading environment
seen in high-speed operation and constitutive / fracture models
which can adequately describe the non-linear behaviour exhibited
by advanced alloys and composite materials are critical in analyzing
the non-linear structural response of modern aerospace vehicles
and structures. The state-of-the-art of the different structural
integrity assessment and prediction methodologies (including non-destructive
structural health monitoring techniques) used for the structural
design, service life assessment and failure analysis of the different
types of aerospace vehicles are presented. The chapters are written
by experts from aerospace / defence research organizations and academia
in the fields of solid mechanics, and structural mechanics and dynamics
of aircraft, rocket and hypersonic systems. The book will serve
as a useful reference document containing specialist knowledge on
appropriate prediction methodologies for a given circumstance and
experimental data acquired from multi-national collaborative programs.
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