Study on the trouser tearing characteristics of airship skin film materials

Abstract In this paper, the tearing properties of Kevlar fiber-reinforced lightweight composite panels are thoroughly investigated through a combination of experimental and theoretical analysis. The research focuses on the tearing strength of airship skin materials, especially on the trouser-tearing behavior of Kevlar materials. By establishing a physical model of a “triangle-like region”, the change of material morphology during trouser tearing is analyzed, and a quadratic model is proposed to describe the tensile elongation of the weft yarn bundle. In the experimental part, the model’s accuracy was verified by the trouser tearing test, and the elastic modulus of the skin material was calculated by generating the tensile force-displacement curve with super test software. The test results show that the material’s maximum tensile load capacity and minimum tensile load capacity. Eventually, by comparing the experimental data with the simulation results, the validity of the established physical model is verified, which provides an important reference for the design and selection of the skin material of the airship.