Aerospace Materials and Components Airbus A380 - Research Paper Example

Aerospace materials and components: Airbus A380 The evolution of the world has been accompanied by the dire need to make various changes to keep abreast with the demand of the society. As far as aviation industry is concerned, these developments are not disputable. The changing times have seen new aircraft materials discovered, and the impact on the aircraft outlook has been enormous, needless to mention improved aircraft performance, safety and performance for sustainable development (Gordon 1991). The following section discusses the pivotal composites to aircraft manufacture, including composites, glass fibre reinforced plastic, and carbon fibre reinforced plastics and glare. The glass fibre reinforced plastic It is widely cited that there are few materials that can the versatile and utility qualities possessed by the glass fibre reinforced plastic. It is not only strong, but is also light in weight efficiently waterproof. Additionally, it has the quality to be moulded into various forms of shapes. It is this feature that has made it to be applied in the making of various components such as car wings, basins, decorative wall panels, roofing and various aircraft parts. This material is formed from glass material that has been felted, followed by embedding with the glass resins. As such, glass fibre reinforced plastic incorporates the desirable qualities of both glass and plastic. The glass fibre strength in the glass fibre reinforced plastic enables its surface to be smooth, as well as impermeable (Vermeeren, 2012). The fibre material that applied in the lamination processes is a combination of roving, which are strands of bunched glass filaments. Usually, the rovings are compressed to form a fabric containing varied densities. In this sense, the density of the material is often measured in terms of the weight and expressed in terms of grams per meter. The weight of the material is subject to the needed resin quantities. In the most common way, the chopped mat could weigh about two and a half times the weight of the resins. The choices pertaining to the materials to be utilized in the manufacture of the aircraft part is determined by the amount of the reinforcement that is required, as well as the nature f the resin to be used. Glass fibre reinforced plastic is considered as the most common composite material used in making aircrafts. This form of material is contains glass fibres that have been embedded in the resins matrices. Fibre glass material was used as early as 1950s, especially in making cars and boats. In the contemporary world, most cars have now been made to comprise of fibreglass bumpers that cover the steel frame. In the 1950, the material was applied in the making of the 707 Boeing passengers Jet. The material accounted for as significant as 2 percent of the structure of the aircraft (Nawy, 2001). It was in 1960s that the composite materials were made available, especially in the forms graphite and boron embedded in the epoxy resins. Glass fibre is now widely used as a reinforcing material in aircraft assembly. The most common fibreglass material is the E-glass. This type of material contains various desirable qualities, yet it is argued to be the cheapest of all fibreglasses. The S-glass has limited use in the aircraft manufacture. It is stronger than E-glass by 30 percent but it is costly by about of 50 percent. The common terms applied in the description of fibreglass are unidirectional and bi-directional. Unidirectional implies all the glass fibres run lengthwise, in one direction. The fibres are held by the threads that run parallel to each other. Bidirectional implies that a number of fibres run lengthwise, across the material. Even so, there are various types of weaves, including stain, twill and plain. Fibreglass comes in varying weights, ranging from one ounce to over 10 ounces per yard (Smallman and Bishop. 2009). The technological developments in various sectors have created the demand for new forms of material to be applied in various critical areas. This has resulted in the development of engineering material to be applied in a wide range of conditions, such as high temperatures, pressure, corrosiveness and humidity, which conventional materials failed to stand. Indeed, the aviation industry has recognized the ability to utilize various composite materials for this purpose. Composite materials have the potential of not only producing high quality, but also cost-effective and long-lasting products. It is argued that whereas the use of composite material may be as old as man, it use for industrial purposes is not more than a century. Yet, since their discovery, the materials have turned out to revolutionize the entire industrial sector, ranging from the aerospace, electrical, transport and chemical industries (Smallman and Bishop 2009). GLARE GLARE is considered rated as the most successful composite metallurgy development. Historically, it was patented in 1987 by Nobel Akzo, and its commercial purpose is reflected by its application in the manufacture of the Airbus A380. The developed saw the Aircraft receive certification for by the European Aviation Authority and FAA. It is argued that the research in the development of GLARE had been initiated as early as 1945, as inspired by the Havilland attempt to improve the properties of the laminates of aluminum (Nawy 2001). This initiative had also been picked up by NASA, which was now interested in making metal components strong for effective launching of the Space Shuttle. This program would later introduce the concept of applying fibers to the bond layers, which then preceded the Fiber Metal Laminates. Research collaboration between NASA and Delft University, Alcoa and NLR triggered the formation of the first FML. However, this suffered various limitations relating to the manufacturing and even the application processes. FML had a relatively high tensile stress, problematic off-axis loading and even compression challenges. Glass Laminate Aluminium Reinforced Epoxy, abbreviated as GLARE, is a composite of is a composite material consisting of the various thin aluminium metal layers that have been interspersed with the fiberglass. These are then bonded together by epoxy matrix material. Here, pre-leg layers, which are often unidirectional, may be aligned to face different directions to suit the potential stress conditions. Despite the fact that GLARE is a composite material, parallels are often drawn between it and several bulky, aluminum metal sheets, as far as the fabrication and material properties are concerned. Otherwise, it stands out from other composite materials, especially when various elements pertaining to the manufacture, design, inspection and maintenance of its components are concerned. It is worth noting that the components of GLARE are often constructed, as well as repaired based on the conventional techniques that are often applied to the traditional materials (Mayer, 1993). GLARE is widely cited to have various advantages over aluminum. In one way, it has desirable damage tolerance characteristics. In particular, it has the ability of withstanding the metal fatigue, as well as collision impact, because it absorbs impact energy more than any other material, leave alone aluminum. In another way, it has high corrosive resistance. In this regard, it has the ability to successfully withstand strong acidic and basic conditions more than aluminum could stand. Thirdly, GLARE has exceptional fire resistance; hence, high temperatures. In this regard, aircraft parts that have been made up of GLARE would always turn out to be more effective in high temperatures than aluminum. It is this feature that enables GLARE to be applied in the unit load device as the aircraft blast furnace resistor. It has been then inferred that GLARE is the only container available and with the capability to withstand high-impact explosions such as those comparable to Lockerbie bombing. Lastly, GLARE is considered to possess lower specific weight. One of the main considerations in the manufacture of aircraft is the weight of material to be used. The lightness of the material informs the effectiveness of aircraft performance. Moreover, GLARE also creates the allowance for material tailoring processes, such as during the designing and manufacturing processes, so that the amount, alignment and nature of layers suits the stress conditions that the component is likely to be exposed . This is what enables the material to be molded into the double curve sections such as the large sheets or complex and integrated material panels (Vlot, 2001). Whereas a simple GLARE sheet may often be more expensive that aluminum sheet, there is always the allowance to use the optimization techniques entails using the composite of the two materials. It is undisputed that the structures that are made up of the GLARE would always turn out to be lighter than made up if aluminum. Additionally, such materials would always require limited time for inspection, as well as maintenance. It is also likely to last as long as the total failure of the aircraft. On the overall, it is light, safe and cheap to use in the manufacture of aircrafts (Vermeeren, 2012). Carbon Reinforced Plastic For the last decades aircraft aluminium grades emerged to be the greatest material of manufacturing of aircraft bodies as well as wings, majorly because of due its excellent resistance. Furthermore, during the unfavourable environment faced both on the ground and in the atmosphere, the material needs to help all these factors, and also has to be resistant to corrosion. Light weight is a principal factor for aircraft materals. Aluminium satisfies this. A new material strengthened by carbon fibre plastic (CFRP) seems to be poised to supersede the global use of aluminium. The material applies in some parts such as new Airbus A350 wings. This will also be on structural constituents of the military planes produced recently. The A350XWB will also application of the CFRP panelled fuselage cover can not only be repaired, but also maintained with relative ease. Weight saving is achieved through optimum fibre layup and cover thickness made to meet the needs of the location. All these new composite wing design shall produce wings of length 6400 centimetres on a 6690 centimetres body. The optimum takeoff weights for A350 aircraft is 265 tones. Airbus came up with composites back in the early 1960s on secondary components in the A310 aircraft. In 1985, composites were used on primary structures and in the innovative drag-reducing wingtip devices on the A310-300. Currently, composites are applied throughout aircrafts that include the A380. A380 became to be the principal commercial plane putting them in the middle wing box and end fuselage. The first world's keel beam for a strong aircraft was put up for the A340-600, as well as the A380, which is continuing, with the common innovation with the increased application of carbon fibre strengthened by plastic. Airbus has been the first to utilize glass fibre aluminium on a civil airliner. The whole fuselage cover of Boeing's new 787, which has two engines and wide body jet because it has to be taken to service this year, will comprise of composites. The cover and spur of the wings are put up from composite material too, but the ribs that give the shapes and of wings are aluminium. Composite materials are approximately fifty percent of the 787. Apart from composites, many other high functioning plastics are used within current aircraft. Boeing, for instance, is using PEEK to monitor tyre’s hubcaps.  The sections have to tolerate 200° C braking temperatures and in-flight air temperatures that can be up to -50° C.  Moreover, the solutions of de-icing and lubrication might meet the tyre pressure systems hence assisting the use improved plastic. Using composites make airliners reliable, keep maintenance costs low, and make airliners light, decreasing fuel expenses. This will allow them to carry many passengers and goods at optimum takeoff weights. The future’s majorly composite airliners will boost the experience of flying of passengers. The act of designing airliner fuselages using composites takes care of fears of metal hardiness that has constrained those who design them. Passenger cabin air should be moistened and subjected to high pressures. This will prevent passengers from dehydration, as well as gasping for breath. In order to reduce the unloaded weight, the Airbus 380 components incorporate a variety of new materials as applied in the A318 and A340 group of aircraft. Carbon fibre, which reinforced by plastic, is applied in the middle box of the wings, which stabilises the aircraft horizontally. They have similar size like the Airbus A310 wing, the end fuselage section, the fin and for ceiling beams. A newly discovered material, Glare, which is strongly resistant to fatigue, is applicable in the build up of the panels for the upper fuselage. The aluminium and fibre glass skins of Glare do not permit propagation of cracks. This is because it is exceedingly lighter than conventional components and represents a weight that saves about five hundred kilo grams in the construction. The resulting resistant thermoplastics are applicable in the wing that leads the edge. The aircraft has sixteen wing spoilers availed by Patria of Finland The A380 combines two and not three Eaton corporation hydraulic systems with the rise of hydraulic pressure of five thousand pounds per square of inch, instead of a known three thousand psi. Rockwell Collins provides communication systems such as VHF and HF multimode and radio receivers. While the Smith companies, supplies the video management unit that performs tasks such as displaying from the cockpit door and cabin security systems. Above all, the L-3 aviation recorders of Florida supplies flight information and cockpit voice recorders. The A380 aircraft posses a twin aisle cabins on the lower and upper decks, which have forty nine percent more of floor size for thirty five percent larger seating volume. A three level layout provides five hundred and fifty five seats. A real deck layout can provide ninety six business and one hundred and three economy class sitters. A lift system between the passenger’s decks provides accessibility of passengers with little mobility. There is a cargo hoist that provides a link between the two passenger decks. Conclusion In conclusion, the evolution of the world has been accompanied by the dire need to make various changes to keep abreast with the demand of the society. As far as aviation industry is concerned, these developments are not disputable. The changing times have seen new aircraft materials discovered, and the impact on the aircraft outlook has been enormous. The crucial developments have been the use of composite materials aircraft manufacture. Indeed, these developments have not been in vain. Composite materials, including CFRP, GFR and Glare have advantages that overshadow the predecessor materials such as Aluminium. Some of these are light, cheap, long-lasting, easily available, impact resistant, fire resistant, and pressure resistant and so on. It is for this reason that they could be argued to revolutionize future aviation industry. References Gordon, G. (1991), The New Sciences for Strong Material: Or Why We Don't Fall to the Floor. Penguin Books Limited. Mayer, R., (1993), Design with reinforced plastics, Springer Nawy, E., (2001), Fundamentals of high-performance concrete. John Wiley and Sons, Vlot, A,. (2001), Glare: histories of the developments of aircraft materials. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Verstärkte, K,. (2010), Sustainability of the Fibre-Reinforced Plastics. An Assessment Based on Selected Applications Examples. Retrieved on November 18, 2012, from http://www.ecia.org/files/AVK%20reort%20EN.pdf Vermeeren, C., (2012), Around Glare: The Aircraft Material in Context. London: Springer, Smallman, R. and Bishop. R. (2009), Modern Physical Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann APPENDIX A pictorial Representation of application areas for composites in Airbus A380 (Verstärkte, 2010). Read More