Manufacturing and testing verification for high temperature composite rudder

The high temperature composite rudder consisted of skin and frame structure was designed and fabricated by press molding process.Then the test of natural modal of composite rudder under free and fixed state was conducted.Finally, the static strength test under bending load was completed.The finite element (FE) model for modal analysis of rudder was generated by using 3D solid element.The calculations of natural modal are consistent well with the test, demonstrating the validity of the FE model proposed in the paper.Based on this FE model, the failure mechanism of rudder under bending load was investigated.The test results show that debonding of resin initially arises at resin connected zone of the rudder, which is followed by inter-laminar delamination propagating along the interface between the composite skin and titanium alloy frame, and finally causes the failure of the rudder.The FE analysis results indicate that the mass distribution of sensors has significant effect on the frequency but slight effect on the mode.The stress analysis results show that the tensile stress causes the debonding of resin at the resin connected zone.The failure location of the rudder predicted by FE method agrees well with the test results.