Advantages of Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures
In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be
achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable
usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even
though there were plenty of studies and research has been already
carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken
and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the
metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is
designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis
has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the
critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing,
tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied
and results are tabulated for better understanding.
[1] Michale. C. Niu, Composite Airframe Structures, Hong Kong conmilit press limited, Honkong.
[2] Michale. C. Niu, Airframe Structural Design, Technical book company, Los Angeles, California 90025, USA.
[3] E. F. Bruhn, Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Jacobs
Publishing Company, Arizona, USA.
[4] Ever. J. Barbero, Finite Element Analysis of Composite Materials, CRC
Press, FL, USA.
[5] A. Brent Strong, Fundamentals of Composite Manufacturing Materials
and Applications, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, MI, USA.
[1] Michale. C. Niu, Composite Airframe Structures, Hong Kong conmilit press limited, Honkong.
[2] Michale. C. Niu, Airframe Structural Design, Technical book company, Los Angeles, California 90025, USA.
[3] E. F. Bruhn, Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, Jacobs
Publishing Company, Arizona, USA.
[4] Ever. J. Barbero, Finite Element Analysis of Composite Materials, CRC
Press, FL, USA.
[5] A. Brent Strong, Fundamentals of Composite Manufacturing Materials
and Applications, Society of Manufacturing Engineers, MI, USA.
@article{"International Journal of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Sciences:54222", author = "Muniyasamy Kalanchiam and Moorthy Chinnasamy", title = "Advantages of Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures", abstract = "In the competitive environment of aircraft industries it becomes absolutely necessary to improve the efficiency, performance of the aircrafts to reduce the development and operating costs considerably, in order to capitalize the market. An important contribution to improve the efficiency and performance can be
achieved by decreasing the aircraft weight through considerable
usage of composite materials in primary aircraft structures. In this study, a type of composite material called Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Plastic (CFRP) is explored for the usage is aircraft skin panels. Even
though there were plenty of studies and research has been already
carried out, here a practical example of an aircraft skin panel is taken
and substantiated the benefits of composites material usage over the
metallic skin panel. A crown skin panel of a commercial aircraft is
designed using both metal and composite materials. Stress analysis
has been carried out for both and margin of safety is estimated for the
critical load cases. The skin panels are compared for manufacturing,
tooling, assembly and cost parameters. Detail step by step comparison between metal and composite constructions are studied
and results are tabulated for better understanding.", keywords = "Composites, CFRP, Aircraft Structure, Skin panel.", volume = "6", number = "11", pages = "2396-5", }