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

21世纪，新飞机和喷气式客机的复合材料用量显著增加，波音787将有50%的复合材料。相比之下，波音777的复合材料比例只有9%左右。空客工业公司也在采取同样的策略。降低复合材料的成本成为飞机制造商的首要目标。根据波音/NASA的成本分摊项目，预计将树脂注入工艺（也称为真空辅助树脂注入或VARI）与新型树脂相结合，将使组件成本降低50%，并且由于特殊的长期耐久性和损伤容忍度，将减少维护。然而，这些低成本工艺和新树脂系统最具挑战性的问题是通过资格认证过程，以证明符合适用的联邦航空法规。拟议研究的长期目标是开发制造、质量控制、机械测试和断裂分析领域的方法，使加拿大航空工业能够降低复合材料结构的总体实施和认证成本。为了实现我们的目标，我们将利用由联邦航空管理局（FAA -USA）支持的先进通用航空技术实验（AGATE）联盟提出的方法。从长远来看，加拿大工业有望从VARI制造过程的深入了解和作为这项工作的一部分所调查的复合系统的性能以及在这一战略领域培养高素质人才中获得重大利益。在为航空结构制造商提供特殊成本优势的同时，该信息将直接适用于其他广泛的工程结构，包括大型地面运输、海军结构和风力涡轮机。

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.