Hybrid Composite-Nanometal-Polymer Structural Systems

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Hybrid composite-nanometal-polymer (HCNP) structures are new structural systems that are light, strong and stiff, and offer unprecedented design flexibility that enables the addition of multifunctional capabilities such as morphing or acoustic tailoring. These structures are fabricated using three advanced manufacturing techniques and rely on sophisticated modelling and computational optimisation methods to create efficient designs. The HCNP structures are fabricated by 3D printing a complex truss-like polymer preform which is subsequently coated with nanocrystalline nickel, cobalt or iron using a pulsed electrodeposition process and then used as the core of a sandwich structure. Carbon fibre composite laminates with engineered stiffness are adhered to the truss to form the face sheets of the sandwich structure. These structures have many free design variables: in the core the designer selects the strut radius, spacing and inclination; the nanometal coating thickness, elemental composition and grain size distribution; and in the face sheets the thickness and stiffness distributions. Because of the many design variables, the HCNP structures can be tailored to be highly efficient