Composite materials are increasingly being used in the aerospace industry. They provide benefits like reduced weight, high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and fatigue resistance compared to traditional metals. Common composite materials used include carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP). These are used in aircraft structures like wings, fuselage, empennage and engine components. While composites provide advantages, there are also challenges to address like delamination, damage tolerance, and high manufacturing costs. Analysis of composite wing structures helps optimize design for strength and stiffness.
1. Composite Materials in
Aerospace Industry
Under guidance of
Mr S. SAI KUMAR,
Asst. Professor,
School of Mechanical Engineering,
VIGNAN’S University.
P.NIKETHAN(131FA08159)
P.NISAR KHAN(131FA08160)
P.R.ESWAR(131FA08163)
T.NAGABABU(131FA08171)
2. Abstract
The modern era of the Aerospace engineering has changed a lot. Forty years ago, aluminium
dominated the aerospace industry. Other new materials such as composites and alloys were also
used, including titanium, graphite, and fiberglass, but only in very small quantities – 3% here and 7%
there. Readily available, aluminium was used everywhere from the fuselage to main engine
components. Aeroplanes have traditionally been made out of metal – usually alloys of aluminium.
Times have changed, A typical jet built today is as little as 20% pure aluminium. Most of the non-
critical structural material – panelling and aesthetic interiors – now consist of even lighter-weight
carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs) and honeycomb materials.
3. Meanwhile, for engine parts and critical components, there is a simultaneous push for lower weight and higher
temperature resistance for better fuel efficiency, bringing new or previously impractical-to-machine metals into
the aerospace material mix. Even after all these new inventions few parts(wings etc.) of the aeroplane wings are
made of aluminium. We are now analysing why aluminium is still being used in making of these parts. A
laminated composite cantilever aircraft wing is used for the modelling and analysis. Analysis is carried out to
determine the strength to weight ratio and stiffness on the surface of the aircraft wing by using ANSYS package.
4. Contents
Introduction
• Why Composite in Aerospace Industry?
• Applications of Composite in Aerospace
• Future involvement of Composite
Methodology
Properties of CFRP
Geometric Modelling
References
5. Introduction
Composite is material consisting of two or more materials, which have different physical
and chemical properties, combined together in a proper content and fashion to produce a new
material properties that are different from the properties of those individual materials.
Composite=Matrix + Reinforcement
6. The role of the reinforcement in a composite material is fundamentally one of increasing the
mechanical properties of the neat resin system. All of the different fibres used in composites have different
properties and so affect the properties of the composite in different ways.
The matrix is the monolithic material into which the reinforcement is embedded, and is completely
continuous. This means that there is a path through the matrix to any point in the material, unlike two materials
sandwiched together. In structural applications, the matrix is usually a lighter metal such
as aluminium magnesium or titanium and provides a compliant support for the reinforcement. In high-
temperature applications, cobalt and cobalt–nickel alloy matrices are common.
7. Advantages of composite material over
metals
Light weight
High heat resistance
High strength to weight ratio
Low density
Corrosion resistance
High stiffness
Fatigue resistance
8. composite in Aerospace Industry
The main aim of the aerospace/aircraft industries is to reduce weight keeping the same or
more strength than the regular metals have.
The use of composites in the aerospace industry has increased dramatically since the 1970s.
Traditional materials for aircraft construction include aluminium, steel and titanium. The primary
benefits that composite components can offer are reduced weight and assembly simplification.
This criteria leads to use composite.
10. Types of composites used
Fiber glass
CFRP
QFRP
GFRP
GLARE
Steel
Aluminium
Titanium
11. Application of composite in Aerospace
Fuselage (Bulkhead)
Wing flaps
Rudder
Elevators
Radom
Spoilers
Floor beams and panels
Helicopter main and tail rotor blades
Space vehicles: Satellites, Missiles, Rockets etc.
12. Introduction to creo-parametric
• Set up Units and Basic Datum Geometry.
• Determine the type of the base feature, the first solid feature, of the design. Note
that Extrude, Revolve, or Sweep operations are the most common types of base
features.
• Create a rough two-dimensional sketch of the basic shape of the base feature of the
design. Apply/modify constraints and dimensions to the two-dimensional sketch.
• Transform the two-dimensional parametric sketch into a 3D feature.
• Add additional parametric features by identifying feature relations and complete
the design. Perform analyses/simulations, such as finite element analysis (FEA) or
cutter path generation (CNC), on the computer model and refine the design as
needed.
• Document the design by creating the desired 2D/3D drawings.
13. . literature review
• Tim Edwards (2008) in his paper describes the making of composite wings and the take-up
of them across the aerospace industry. Carbon/epoxy composites, by contrast, exhibit little
or no plasticity. Consequently, small in-service impacts tend to create local breakdowns of
the epoxy matrix, leading to a weakening of the laminate in the area of the impact. In
addition, stress concentrations in a composite design can cause sudden structural failure at
high load; the process would be incremental with a similar design in metal because the load
would be redistributed.
• Mohammad Salahuddin et.al.,(2013) have done the numerical investigation of
Wings with and without winglet designs. This investigation shows the various performance
and parameters for the wings when designed with a winglet and without a winglet and thus
comparing the parameters for both the designs. One of the objectives of this work is reduce
the induced drag formed on wing during the fight operation, thus improving the efficiency
of the aircraft.
16. Disadvantages
Use of composite is more challenging to design.
NDT test for composite material is much more difficult as compared to metals.
Delamination of layers.
High cost
Damage tolerance.
Need specialized repair techniques.
17. References
• Daniel, I. M., Ishai, O.(2005). Engineering mechanics of composite
materials. Oxford, New York, 2, 3-4.
• Frediani, A et al., 2003. Development of a Prandtlplane aircraft
configuration. In Proceedings of the 17th AIDAA Congress, Roma,
Italy, pp. 2263 – 2276.
• Tim Edwards, a structural engineer at Atkins, INGENIA ISSUE 36
SEPTEMBER 2008
• Callister, William D. and David G. Rethwisch. "Composites: Polymer-
Matrix Composites. Fundamentals of Materials Science and
Engineering, 3rd edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2008. 637-634
