Composite Materials : How They Are Made And Used As Aircraft Parts

Boeing’s CDA (Concept Demonstration Aircraft) completely broke the mold with their design, which was very different to say the least. Their X-32 aircraft’s skin was composed of a material known as a “thermoplastic matrix”, which was a composite material embedded in an epoxy resin. When heated, this material undergoes a chemical reaction, thus forming a “highly rigid component” (Sweetman 64). This composite material would give the designers the ability to re-heat and re-shape the wing without having to start over from the beginning. Boeing insisted on using this kind of material because it provided them a way to cut cost. This kind of philosophy, accompanied with their lack of experience in building military aircraft, cost them in the end. After months of demonstrations between both CDA‘s, it was Lockheed Martin’s X-35 that was chosen due to their lift-fan design. The advantage of the lift-fan design, when compared to Boeing’s vectored thrust approach, was that it provided more excess power (F-35 Lightning II). With the 126-month, $13 billion contract in hand, the clock was now running for Lockheed Martin to begin production on the aircraft (Sweetman 95).

This report details the process for the design of a composite laminate tube, the software package 'MathCAD' was used to determine a lamina design with a configuration that avoids mechanical failure under loading conditions. It was also used to obtain twist angles and maximum stresses for specific lamina wind up angles. The report will provide analysis of the methods used to obtain these criteria.

Through research about composite and bio-composite, there are many advantage and disadvantages in aircraft construction. Definition for composite, a material that are made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties when combined, produce a material with characteristic different from the individual components. The individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure. In aircraft, the first composite aircraft was in 1916, era of World War 1, when British launched a Bristol Scout from Felixstowe. Between the World War, American experiments with airship composites led to the construction of two aircraft carriers, while the British Short Mayo seaplane composite demonstrated successful transatlantic mail delivery. During the Second World War, some composites saw operational use including the Mistel, the larger unmanned component of a composite aircraft configuration developed in Germany at the end of World War 2. Experiments continued into the jet age, with large aircraft carrying fully capable parasite fighters or reconnaissance drones.

Fiber-reinforced composite consisting of multiple layers of material is called laminate. Each layer is thin and may have a different fiber orientation. Two laminates may have the same number of layers and the same fiber angles but the two laminates may be different because of the arrangement of the layers. Figure 18 shows a global Cartesian coordinate system and a general laminate consisting of N layers. The laminate thickness is denoted by h and the thickness of a kth layer is hk thickness coordinate, designated z, is located at the laminate geometric mid-plane. The geometric mid- plane may be within a particular layer or at an interface between layers.

Composite materials have been evaluated with a matrix properties unsaturated polyester resin by conducting mechanical testing, including the pressure, compression, hardness and impact resistance.. While wood flour helped add to the balance between the original compression strength reductions up to 3 wt. wood flour and then reduce the strength. The results confirmed that the best promote and 3% by weight of wood flour consider the compression strength

Boeing’s newest jet, the 787, is made out of composite plastics and carbon fiber in order to

Carbon fiber in all aspects is a material consisting of thin fibers of nearly pure carbon made by subjecting various organic raw materials to high temperatures, combined with asynthetic resins to produce a strong, lightweight material use in construction of aircraft and spacecraft (dictionary 2016). This composite material dates back to the 1950s where the tensile strength of carbon fiber was discovered and put into work. 50 years later carbon fiber is still well used and in great demand as the benefits of it proved to be great for the race car industry. The purpose of this project is to examine the mechanical properties of carbon fiber, and the benefits that it provides to the race car industry as well as predicting what other applications will occur in the

The next-generation of aircraft, including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Airbus A350 and Bombardier C Series, are 20% more fuel efficient per passenger kilometer than current generation aircraft. This is primarily achieved through more fuel-efficient engines and lighter airframes and supporting structures made of composite materials but is also achieved through more aerodynamic shapes, winglets, a "one-piece" fuselage and more advanced computer systems for optimizing routes and loading of the aircraft.

Introduction: The available life cycle cost (LCC) models and procurement strategies do not take into consideration the varied manufacturing techniques for advanced composite materials. The increased use of advanced composite materials in aerospace

There are various materials which can be used on aircrafts. Composite and alloy materials are the primary component used due to the ability to combine certain materials with different strengths together to create a composite or alloy. These have ultimate properties that are needed to create an aircraft to be used safely in application. Composites are used due to the extreme high strength to weight ratio, although using large amounts of metals can be strong, unlike composites this would be too heavy. Composites essentially are designed to create a lighter aircraft, which over a long period of time, would be more cost effective for company running the plane, due to fuel savings.

The Boeing 787 is positioned within the market with a high likelihood of success. As crude oil prices have risen over the past few years and likely to remain high in the future, the 787 can reduce the airline’s operation cost by consuming 20% less fuel than other airplanes of comparable size. On top of the non-corroding composite fuselages, sensors were embed into the main structure to capture real-time data on plane’s structure. With both features, the airlines benefit from reduced maintenance cost and increased airplane life span. The Boeing 787 also has a larger cargo capacity to allow for additional space, providing additional revenue from potential customers. Because of the booming cargo market, adding additional cargo space was a necessity for more of a stable revenue stream. Besides the airline companies, more financiers and leasing

The newest models in production by Airbus and Boeing represent their competing views of the future of the industry. The Airbus A380 is their solution to growing traffic between major hubs. Their plans for the A380 signify their current goals of reducing operating costs, increasing range, reducing fuel burn, and reducing noise and emissions (Airbus, Aircraft Families – Introduction A380 Family). The Boeing 7E7 is their solution for non-stop flights between secondary cities. Boeing’s goals for the 7E7 are to bring “big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes”, burn 20% less fuel while traveling at Mach 0.85, an emphasis on passenger comfort to include higher humidity rates in the passenger area, and a composite material body with open architecture systems (Boeing, Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner Will Provide New Solutions for Airlines, Passengers). These differing approaches highlight each companies

Aeronautical manufacturing firms in the United States economy come out as the single most important firms in export business. The industry has sustained high wages, heavy infrastructures, value adding aspects and sustainable infrastructure that supports other industries. The Bureau of labor Statistics estimates that, by the year 2014 salary and wage employment will rise by eight percent compared to, the overall combined growth in all industries. The industry suffered a significant decline in demand after the 2001 September terrorist attack. Slowly demand and growth of the industry has increased with higher domestic and foreign demand for airplanes ADDIN EN.CITE McGuire S.2007441(McGuire S., 2007)44144117McGuire S.,The United States, Japan and the Aerospace Industry: From Capture to Competitor.Pacific Review of Educational ResearchPacific Review of Educational Research329-3502032007( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_4" o "McGuire S., 2007 #441" McGuire S., 2007).

A major shortcoming of wind energy technology is the failure rate of composite blades is up to 20% due to bird/bat strike as shown in Figure 2. On the other hand, one major US Energy Company pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds due to their wind turbines ($1M fine, or $6,000/bird!). Therefore, we plan to employ “damage-trap material interface (DTMI) design” to reduce not only the impact damage of composite blades, but also the bird/bat death rate, since the maximum impact force acting on birds will decrease after special thin interface layers are placed between layered composites based on our preliminary impact experiments (impact speed up to 50 m/s). Our major goal is to significantly improve impact resistance and durability of composite structures for wind blades, Boeing 787, and BMW i3 or future composite aircraft, ships and cars. Meanwhile, we are developing an efficient approach to combine nanoindentation

It has been done the work to describes Flexural strength and flexural modulus of the composites can be successfully improved by filling nonmetals recycled from waste