Low cost composite materials for aeronautic applications: materials development and durability issues

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The 21st century is seeing an outstanding increase in composites for new aircraft and jetliners as the Boeing 787 which will be 50% composite. In contrast, the Boeing 777 is only about 9% composite. Airbus Industries is also following the same strategy. Lowering the cost of composites became the primary target of aircraft manufacturers. Under a Boeing/NASA cost-shared project, it is forecasted that combining the resin infusion process (also named Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion or VARI) with a new class of resins will reduce the component costs by 50 percent and reduce maintenance due to the exceptional long-term durability and damage tolerance. However, the most challenging issue with these low cost processes and new resin systems is to get through the qualification process to demonstrate compliance to the applicable Federal Aviation Regulations. The long term objective of the proposed research is to develop methodologies in the fields of manufacturing, quality control, mechanical testing and fracture analysis which enable the Canadian Aeronautic Industry to reduce the overall implementation and qualification cost of composite structures. To achieve our objectives we will make use of the methodologies proposed by the Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiments (AGATE) consortium which is supported by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA -USA). In the longer-term picture, Canadian industry is expected to derive significant benefits from the developed understanding of the VARI manufacturing process and the performance of the composite systems investigated as part of this work and also from the formation of highly qualified personnel in this strategic field.  While providing particular cost advantages for aerospace structures fabricators, this information will be directly applicable to a wide range of other engineering structures including large ground transportation, naval structures, and wind turbines.