Z -Pin Composites: Aerospace Structural Design Considerations

Z-pins are increasingly used to enhance the delamination toughness and impact damage tolerance of composite aircraft structures. An important consideration in the design of z-pinned structures is the deterioration of the in-plane mechanical properties of the composite material because of the pins. Experimental property data presented in this paper reveal that large improvements to the delamination toughness of carbon-epoxy composite gained with...