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Composites Materials for Aeronautical Structural Application

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Composites".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2022) | Viewed by 6512

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy
Interests: aerospace structures; structural dynamics; aeroelasticity; ground and flight testing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the early 1960s, fibrous materials such as fiber glass, boron and carbon/graphite made their appearance in the aeronautical scenario and they were referred to as “advanced composites” to differentiate them from wood. These materials were fascinating for airplane manufacturers because of their ability to resist the applied loads at a fraction of the weight of the metallic alloys.

Since that period, composite materials have been used worldwide, in an increasing number of applications, moving from secondary to primary structures such as wings, fuselages, control surfaces and spacecraft.

New materials, processing methods, and numerical tools are still being continuously developed with the objective to reduce structural weight, minimize environmental impact, improve a vehicle’s cost efficiency, reduce energy consumption and provide advanced solutions for passive safety and maintenance-free structures.

This Special Issue aims to present the positive expectations with regard to composite materials, but also to list the drawbacks resulting from their improper or inefficient use, aiming to provide experience and evidence to support efficient future applications in the aeronautical field. Researchers from both the academic and industrial environment are invited to publish results of their experiences, lessons learnt and their view of future achievements in this field.

Papers emphasizing technological progressive improvements, referring to numerical, experimental as well as real applications, with a focus on the expected and the achieved results, addressed to the broad aeronautical community, are especially encouraged.

Dr. Francesco Marulo
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Composite Aerospace Structures
  • Design and Optimization Strategies
  • Structural Health Monitoring
  • Stress Analysis
  • Numerical Methods
  • Manufacturing Processes
  • Structural Maintenance
  • Impact Analysis
  • Fatigue Behavior and Crack Propagation
  • Experimental Methods
  • Smart Structures
  • Cost Effectiveness and Life Cycle Management

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 2843 KiB  
Article
Accurate Stress Analysis of Variable Angle Tow Shells by High-Order Equivalent-Single-Layer and Layer-Wise Finite Element Models
by Alberto Racionero Sánchez-Majano, Rodolfo Azzara, Alfonso Pagani and Erasmo Carrera
Materials 2021, 14(21), 6486; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14216486 - 28 Oct 2021
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 2027
Abstract
New concepts of lightweight components are conceived nowadays thanks to the advances in the manufacture of composite structures. For instance, mature technologies such as Automatic Fibre Placement (AFP) are employed in the fabrication of structural parts where fibres are steered along curvilinear paths, [...] Read more.
New concepts of lightweight components are conceived nowadays thanks to the advances in the manufacture of composite structures. For instance, mature technologies such as Automatic Fibre Placement (AFP) are employed in the fabrication of structural parts where fibres are steered along curvilinear paths, namely variable angle tow (VAT), which can enhance the mechanical performance and alleviate the structural weight. This is of utmost importance in the aerospace field, where weight savings are one of the main goals. For that reason, shell structures are commonly found in the aerospace industry because of their capabilities of supporting external loadings. Straight-fibre composite shell structures have been studied in recent decades and, now, spatially varying composite shells are attracting the attention of manufacturers. This work analyses the mechanical behaviour of VAT composite shells subjected to different external loadings and boundary conditions. The Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF) is employed to obtain the different structural models in a systematic and hierarchic manner. The outcomes of such numerical models are discussed and compared with commercial software Abaqus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Composites Materials for Aeronautical Structural Application)
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20 pages, 3151 KiB  
Article
Validity and Applicability of the Scaling Effects for Low Velocity Impact on Composite Plates
by Michele Guida
Materials 2021, 14(19), 5884; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14195884 - 8 Oct 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1488
Abstract
As a result of the increasing use of composite materials in engineering fields, the study of the effect of scale on impact performance is essential for the design of large-scale structures. The purpose of this study was to develop a method capable of [...] Read more.
As a result of the increasing use of composite materials in engineering fields, the study of the effect of scale on impact performance is essential for the design of large-scale structures. The purpose of this study was to develop a method capable of identifying a corrective factor that can be used to evaluate based on similarity theory the behavior of panels with the same material but with scaled geometry when subjected to low velocity impact. The field of investigation was applied based on the experimental results present in the bibliography and that refer to two flat sheets differing only in geometric scale and made by overlapping carbon/carbon unidirectional pre-impregnated epoxy 914 C-TS (6K) −5 34% sheets. Behavior outside the range of structural linearity was investigated for the scaled panels, and the theoretical predictions of the model, projected with each law of scale for each variable present in the dynamic impact process, were compared with the experimental data. A finite element model was thereby developed that validates the theory of scaling and its limits of applicability up to the limits of fracture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Composites Materials for Aeronautical Structural Application)
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Review

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20 pages, 3444 KiB  
Review
A Review on Reductions in the Stress-Intensity Factor of Cracked Plates Using Bonded Composite Patches
by Abdul Aabid, Meftah Hrairi, Jaffar Syed Mohamed Ali and Tamer Ali Sebaey
Materials 2022, 15(9), 3086; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15093086 - 24 Apr 2022
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2329
Abstract
In aerospace engineering applications, lightweight material structures are considered to perform difficult service conditions and afford energy efficiency. Therefore, composite materials have gained popularity due to their light weights and high performances in structural design. Mechanical loads and environmental conditions primarily create damage [...] Read more.
In aerospace engineering applications, lightweight material structures are considered to perform difficult service conditions and afford energy efficiency. Therefore, composite materials have gained popularity due to their light weights and high performances in structural design. Mechanical loads and environmental conditions primarily create damage to structural materials, thus numerous studies have considered the repair of the damaged structure. Bonded composite repairs are generally chosen, as they provide enhanced stress-transfer mechanisms and joint efficiencies with the increased use of advanced composite materials in primary and secondary aircraft structural components. Thus, it is essential to have reliable and repeatable bonded repair procedures to restore damaged structural components. However, composite bonded repairs, especially with primary structures, present several scientific challenges in the current existing repair technologies. In this review, a study has been done on the bonded composite repair of damaged structures with the stress-intensity factor (SIF) as the parameter for defining the extent of failure by composite repair and unrepaired material structures. In this work, various types of repair methods and the techniques used by researchers are critically reviewed, and future opportunities are explored. The present study was limited to the composite and aluminium materials that are common in aerospace applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Composites Materials for Aeronautical Structural Application)
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