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 structurally, and can also be enhanced with additional functional properties. The goal of this research program is to develop methods to fabricate, model and optimise functionalised HCNP structural systems.******This program will consist of four simultaneous activities to advance this research. First, fabrication improvements associated with the connection between the face sheets and the core will be implemented. Second, x-ray tomography will be employed to identify the mechanisms of failure in the nanometal-polymer truss core. This will inform the creation of new mechanical models of strength that will subsequently be used in design. Third, new multiphysics models of morphing and acoustic performance will be developed. Fourth, the mechanical and multiphysics models will be combined in a computational optimisation scheme to ensure that designers are able to select the lightest and best performing HCNP structure possible. Once this is accomplished, our industrial partners, Integran Technologies, Bombardier Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney Canada and MDA Corporation, will have access to these new technologies, providing a technological advantage to Canadian manufacturers.