Chapter 10

Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures

10.1 What are composites?

When any two or more substances are used together in a structure it can generally be termed a composite. In aircraft design the term composite is used when the main material of construction consists of strands of strong bres stuck together with an adhesive (resin or matrix). Composite materials are normally used in the form of layers of thin cloth or at tapes, although small-diameter bundles of bres, called rovings, are also sometimes used. These materials are easily formed into complex curved shapes of almost any size, giving very clean, aerodynamically smooth surfaces. Careful design and selection of materials can result in structures that are stronger, stiffer and lighter than their metal counterparts. During the 1960s, sailing boat manufacturers began to exploit composites to make smooth-curved hull shapes of low cost and needing little maintenance. The material used was chopped-strand glass bres with polyester resin. This gave smooth and cheap hull mouldings but for its weight was not very strong.Aircraft made from this kind of material would be too heavy. Glider manufacturers saw the advantage of the beautiful, smooth surfaces possible with composites but needed something a little stronger and lighter. Glass bres woven into a cloth (and used as long strands of rovings for wing spars) were combined with stronger epoxy resin to give a better strength to weight ratio but at a greater cost. This combination of materials is now used for almost all gliders, as well as many home-built or kit planes and even some light aircraft such as the Slingsby T-67 Firey and Grob 115 trainer. Further improvements in strength to weight ratio were required before composites could be more widely adopted in the aircraft industry. This came from the introduction of carbon bre (often called graphite ber in the USA) which offered increased strength and stiffness and a reduction in weight (see Fig. 10.1). Improvements in manufacturing techniques have reduced the amount of resin needed to bond the bres together, yielding further weight reductions.

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Fig. 10.1

Stress : strain diagram comparing composites with aluminium.

For military and commercial aircraft in the 21st century, composites are mostly used in the form of uni-directional tapes, where the straight bre strands are all laid side by side and run in the same direction like a ribbon. These are supplied with a measured quantity of resin already squeezed around the bres and are called pre-pregs (for pre-impregnated). They can be laid into moulds by hand or by a programmed, robotic tape-laying machine. These high-strength pre-preg systems need to be cured in an autoclave (a large pressure chamber that applies heat and pressure to the component) and the total cost of the materials, labour and capital equipment can be very high. Examples of the use of pre-preg materials can be seen in the wings and forward fuselage of the AV-8B Harrier II and the tailplanes of the Airbus A-320. Apart from a limited number of Beech Starship aircraft, no allcomposite commercial aircraft has yet gone into production but composites are used extensively in combat aircraft like the Euroghter Typhoon and SAAB Grippen, in helicopter structures and rotor blades and in fairings and control surfaces of airliners.

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10.2 The strength of composite materials

A piece of composite material, such as a tape, with all of its bres running along its length will be much stronger when pulled in the direction of the bres (longitudinal strength) than when pulled to the side (transverse strength). This is unlike metals, which have virtually the same strength in all directions. In many structures the loads (stresses) are predominantly in one direction, so the designer can place most of his bres in that same direction to maximise strength and minimise weight. Careful selection of the bre directions in a structure can cause it to twist or warp in a controlled manner and it is this effect that has made possible forward-swept wings for some experimental aircraft. The starting point for considering the strength of the various types of composite material and comparing it to metal can be taken as a single strand of bre or bundle of bres like a string, wetted out with the appropriate amount of resin and cured. In this case all the bres run in the same direction and share the load equally. Typical design values of tensile stress (taken from actual aircraft design manuals) are listed below, the aluminium alloys are included for comparison: Glass bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, pre-preg Aluminium alloy sheet 2024-T3 Aluminium alloy plate 2014-T651 310 MPa (44 950 psi) 292 MPa (42 360 psi) 585 MPa (85 500 psi) 414 MPa (60 000 psi) 460 MPa (66 700 psi)

(Note: refer to Section 5.5 for an explanation of the different types of stresses.) This list does not tell the whole story. The reason composites are often considered for aircraft design is because of their strength to weight ratio. A high strength to weight ratio will result in a lighter aircraft structure. If we take the tensile strengths listed above and divide them by their respective material weight (density), we can get a comparison of strength to weight ratio, starting with aluminium alloy sheet as 100%: Aluminium alloy sheet Aluminium alloy plate Glass bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, pre-preg 100% 111% 126% 182% 235%

In a simple design case like the anges of an I beam or the spar caps of a glider wing these strength to weight ratios can actually be achieved but in many other cases they cannot. The reason is that while the composites are very strong along the direction of the bres, they are very weak across them. To make a composite panel equally strong both along its length and

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across its width, half of the bres would have to be turned through 90 to run across the panel. This would result in the composite having only half of the strength in each direction and, consequently, its strength to weight ratio would also have halved. The metal panel, of course, always had equal strength in each direction. Typical strengths for composite panels with equal numbers of bres running both along it and across it (0/90 cloth) are listed below and can be compared with the values above: Glass bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, pre-preg 109 MPa (15 801 psi) 148 MPa (21 462 psi) 315 MPa (45 900 psi)

The strength to weight ratios are much lower, compared to the aluminium sheet: Glass bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, wet lay-up Carbon bre, pre-preg 44% 72% 126%

In a panel subjected to shear stresses, such as the vertical web of an I beam, the best strength is achieved when the bres in the composite are aligned at 45 to the web so that they run diagonally up and down it. Special 45 double-bias cloths are available to serve this purpose. The 45 cloths are also used in wing skins and other parts of the aircraft structure to resist torsion loads or twisting (Table 10.1). It can be seen from the strength to weight comparisons above that the use of composite materials does not automatically result in large weight savings in an aircraft design. It is necessary to calculate the exact amount of material to place in each direction and to use the minimum amount needed to carry the design loads. It is by this optimisation of the design that an efcient lightweight structure is achieved and the nature of composites allows it to be more easily achieved than with metals.

10.3 Types of structures

The simplest type of composite construction is a solid laminate skin supported by ribs and frames, just like a conventional metal or wooden structure. This is common in military aircraft, where the structure can be subjected to very large loads and the resulting components become quite thick. A combat aircraft wing skin made from pre-preg tapes could be 25 mm thick. A wing skin this thick has the advantage that it can resist buckling but it can become quite difcult to get the loads transferred from the skin into the spar webs. This is because of the poor through-the-thickness strength of the laminates, which might allow the skin to tear away

Table 10.1 Composite design values Youngs Modulus, GPa (p.s.i.) 13.8 (2.0 106) 4.55 (0.66 106) 37.6 (5.45 106) 3.45 (0.50 106) 41.9 (6.08 106) 41.9 (6.08 106) 13.9 (2.02 106) 82.7 (12 106) 82.7 (12 106) 70 (10.2 106) 70 (10.2 106) 17 (2.47 106) 130 (19 106) 130 (19 106) Shear modulus, GPa (p.s.i.) 1.65 7.03 1.65 1.65 4.07 4.07 19.5 4.62 4.62 (0.24 (1.02 (0.24 (0.24 (0.59 (0.59 (2.83 (0.67 (0.67 106) 106) 106) 106) 106) 106) 106) 106) 106) Tensile/compressive stress, MPa (p.s.i.) 109 (15 810) 36 (5264) 310 (44 950) 14 (2027) 148 (21 462) 119 (17 206) 63 (9090)(T) 292 (42 360) 234 (33 960) 315 (45 900) 273 (39 780) 77 (11 115)(T) 585 (85 500) 507 (74 100) Shear stress, MPa (p.s.i.) 30 (4307) 89 (12 905) 30 (4307) 30 (4307) 23 (3339) 23 (3339) 110 (16 018) 26 (3792) 26 (3792) 27 (3990) 27 (3990) 194 (28 101) 27 (3990) 27 (3990)

Type and orientation 0/90 Glass cloth, wet lay-up 45 Glass cloth, wet lay-up Undirectional glass tape, wet lay-up, axial Undirectional glass tape, wet lay-up, transverse 0/90 Carbon cloth, wet lay-up, tension 0/90 Carbon cloth, wet lay-up, compression 45 Carbon cloth, wet lay-up U/D Carbon tape, wet lay-up, axial, tension U/D Carbon tape, wet lay-up, axial, compression 0/90 Carbon tapes, pre-preg, axial, tension 0/90 Carbon tapes, pre-preg, axial, compression 45 Carbon tape, pre-preg U/D Carbon tape, pre-preg, axial, tension U/D Carbon tape, pre-preg, axial, compression

Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures

4.8 (0.70 106) 4.8 (0.70 106) 34 (4.93 106) 4.8 (0.70 106) 4.8 (0.70 106)

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from the spars. Many spars, ribs and shear-webs may be needed to spread the load transfer over a large area of skin. Ten or more wing spars might be used in a combat aircraft. In less severely loaded aircraft structures, the skins will become thinner and the number of ribs, frames and spars reduced. In light aircraft and gliders a single main-spar and just a few ribs are used. The skin and ribs can become so light that they are too thin to resist buckling and some additional form of stiffening is needed. A common solution to this problem is to build the skins as a sandwich by inserting a lightweight ller or core layer into the laminate. The skin will now consist of this sandwich core layer with thin composite face layers glued to either side of it (Fig. 10.2). This construction greatly increases the laminates bending stiffness and therefore its resistance to buckling, with only a very small increase in weight. (See Section 2.4 for more information on sandwich construction.) Another application for sandwich construction is in the oor panels of airliners, where a large at panel must carry bending loads. Glass-bre facing skins are normally used over a honeycomb core layer. The glassbre facing skins resist the bending loads, rather like the anges of an I beam and the sandwich core carries the shear force. The thicker the core layer that is used, the thinner and lighter become the skins and the less will be the bending deection of the oor under load. The weight of the core layer will remain the same because the thicker core can be made from a lighter material to carry the same shear force. Many home-built light aircraft use a different form of construction, usually referred to as mouldless composite construction. The basic idea is that a huge block of polystyrene foam is carved (usually with a hot wire) into the shape of the wing and glass-bre skins are simply built up over the outside. The foam is left in place and serves as the shear-carrying ribs and spar webs. Wing main spars can be built in too. Sometimes the spar booms and webs are made separately and tted into the foam block before the skins are applied. Other things must also be built in, such as hinges and controls for ailerons and aps and wiring conduits for lights and aerials. Although very simple and requiring no major moulds, the structures produced are a little heavy and a great number of man hours can be spent achieving a smooth nish.

10.4 Joining composites

Since composites consist mostly of bres stuck together with epoxy resin, it is quite straightforward to glue components together with epoxy adhesives. Most glass-bre gliders and light aircraft are almost entirely glued together, bolts being used only where particularly heavy loads are applied or at disassembly points. Strong glued joints can only be achieved by the correct selection of the adhesive and very careful preparation of the surfaces to be joined.

Composite Materials in Aircraft Structures

Fig. 10.2

Composite wing spar construction (one of several possible methods).

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In larger aircraft structures it is quite common to eliminate many of the glueing operations by forming several of the components at the same time, this is called co-curing. For example, a wing skin can be laid uncured into its mould and then the ribs and spar webs, also uncured, are added, with tooling to support and position them. The whole lot is then cured together in an autoclave. This leaves only the closing skin to be attached by other methods. The tooling needed for co-curing large aircraft parts is extremely complex and very expensive. It is quite possible to use mechanical fasteners, such as bolts and rivets, to join composite components together or to attach them to metal components. Specially designed rivets and high-strength fasteners are available for use in composites. Using rivets designed for metal may damage the composite. Ordinary bolts may be used and often some local reinforcing feature may be added, such as a sleeve bushing in a hole or a gluedon metal face plate. Galvanic corrosion of the bolts or rivets must be prevented when carbon bre is present (see Section 8.1). The main precaution is to prevent the ingress of water by applying jointing compounds or adhesive and wet assembling the joint. Specially coated or plated fasteners are available and it is common to use titanium rather than steel bolts. Drilling holes in the composite for fasteners will greatly reduce its strength. To get around this it is necessary to reinforce it. Where a tting is bolted to the composite structure it is often adequate to just glue metal facing plates either side of the composite and then bolt through the whole lot. Another way is to build up the thickness of the composite around the joint by adding more layers and placing them with the bres lying in the direction that gives the best joint strength. Bolting things to a foam or honeycomb sandwich structure requires something to stop the lightweight core being crushed when the bolts are tightened. A reinforcing block of dense foam, plastic or even wood can be imbedded in the core during manufacture. Alternatively, the cells of a honeycomb could be lled with a strong adhesive ller paste. Metal inserts can be bought or made, then glued into large holes cut into one side of the sandwich. The face skins of a sandwich panel are usually very thin and need to be reinforced to carry the bearing loads around a bolt.The metal inserts often used have large diameter heads or anges that spread the load over a larger area of skin. Large-diameter washers or metal face plates can be glued on to serve the same purpose. The idea is to spread the load over the face skin, rather than take it all on the thin edge of the hole. A large number of specialist items are available for making attachments to composite. Adhesively bonded screw studs, anchor nuts and cable tie bases can be used to deal with many attachment problems without having to drill holes in the composite.

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10.5 Fibres
10.5.1 Glass bre
There are two main types of glass bre: E-glass, which is the most common type, and S-glass, which is available mainly in the USA. Both types are similar but S-glass is slightly stronger. Woven glass cloths and tapes are available in a wide variety of styles and thicknesses. Because the bare glass bres are very delicate, they are coated with a substance called size to protect them during manufacture and weaving. There are several different types of size and epoxy resin does not stick properly to all of them. A glass cloth with a nish that is suitable for use with the chosen resin system must be used. Silane is the most popular for use with epoxy resin but there are others and some universal nishes; a check should be made with the technical department of the supplier before using them.

10.5.2 DuPonts Kevlar aramid bre

Aramid bres look like thin yellow string and are very soft to the touch. DuPonts Kevlar is the best known but there is also Twaron by Akzo. It is very strong in tension and very light. Stiffness is much better than glass bre but not as good as carbon. A good range of cloths is available from many different suppliers. It is very easy to wet-out with resin and bonds well with epoxy to give a tough, lightweight composite. Aramids are excellent for making stiff, lightweight shell structures but there are a few drawbacks: the material is weak in compression and is therefore not very good for carrying bending loads or for use in compression struts; it does not cut very easily, so special drills, saws and shears are needed for both the dry cloth and nished composite; the bres tend to go uffy around cut edges and holes and sanding down the surface can be a disaster. The material is also prone to soaking up moisture through exposed bre ends (called wicking), which can damage the structure and therefore the components must be well sealed with paint. One big advantage of Kevlar is that laminates made from it are very resistant to impact damage. Kevlar is sometimes used in hybrid composites, mixed with carbon to get the strength and stiffness of carbon combined with the toughness and lightness of Kevlar.

10.5.3 Carbon bre (or graphite bre)

Carbon bres are very strong, stiff and light. There are two main varieties, called high-modulus and high-strength, caused by variation of the manufacturing technique. Data on the performance of specic types of bre is normally readily available from the manufacturers and suppliers. The actual strength of carbon bre is not much greater than that of glass bre but it is lighter and three times as stiff (i.e. its Youngs Modulus is much greater, see Section 5.5.3). Unfortunately, it is also much more

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expensive than glass bre. It is available in a wide range of woven cloths, stitched fabrics and uni-directional tapes (narrow tapes with all the bres running parallel in the same direction), both as a dry cloth or as a prepreg with epoxy. Carbon bre is easy to work into complex curved shapes, wets-out well as a wet lay-up and forms a strong bond to epoxy resin. It can be cut and drilled quite easily, although special drills may be needed with pre-pregs to prevent damage around the holes. One problem with carbon bre is that it is a high-resistance electrical conductor, which might explode when struck by lightning. Aeroplanes and yacht masts made of carbon bre must be tted with lightning conductors unless the cross-sections of the components are so big that they can absorb a lightning strike without overheating. For aircraft this usually means building copper conductors into the wing around carbon spars or adding a conductive layer, such as aluminium mesh, over the outside of the whole aircraft. The use of bres in aircraft structures is illustrated in Fig. 10.3. Figure 10.4 shows an aircraft with an entirely composite main structure.

Fig. 10.3

Application of composite materials to the A340.

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Fig. 10.4

CMC Leopard 002 an aircraft with an all composite main structure.

10.6 Resins
10.6.1 Polyester resin
Polyester resin is widely used in commercial, industrial and marine applications. It is not normally used in aircraft because epoxies offer better strength and durability. The resin is easy to work with, being supplied as a clear liquid resin to which a few drops of liquid catalyst (hardener) are added and stirred-in just before use. It is sometimes used for low-cost tooling and moulds when accuracy and durability are not vital.

10.6.2 Epoxy resin

Epoxy is the resin system used in most aircraft structural applications. There is a wide range of different formulations available to suit different

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purposes; the manufacturers or suppliers technical departments will give advice on the most suitable system for any specic application. The main differences are between the different temperatures used to cure the resin, the working temperature it is expected to see in service and the manufacturing method used to make the composite components. The greatest strength is achieved with a resin system that is cured at high temperature, typically 175C under pressure in an autoclave. To get the lightest weight components for aerospace use, all excess resin must be eliminated. This is normally done by running the bre tapes or cloth through a bath of mixed epoxy resin and then between rollers that force resin into the cloth and squeeze away the excess. This is done by the material suppliers and the resulting material is called a pre-preg. To stop the resin from hardening in the pre-preg cloth before it can be cut and laidup in the mould it is kept at cold temperatures, this is typically -10C. Even when stored in a freezer, the epoxy will eventually go off, so these materials have a limited shelf life of 6 or 12 months. The high-temperature curing epoxy systems are expensive to use because not only is an autoclave needed but the mould tools must be strong enough to withstand the repeated heating and cooling cycles of component production; this means that they must be made from expensive materials. Epoxy resin systems are being continuously developed to improve strength and reduce the cost and difculty of component manufacture. Low-temperature curing pre-preg systems are now available that give excellent strength when cured at temperatures of 75100C and that need only the pressure of a portable vacuum bag system, rather than the higher pressures of an autoclave. For light aircraft and gliders the epoxy resin is bought in a two-part pack and mixed just before use, where it is brushed, rolled and squeezed into the dry cloths laid in the mould. Unlike polyester resin, it is very important to get exactly the right quantity of resin and hardener into the mixture. This is done by using accurate scales to weigh it out or by using a metering pump that delivers the correct ratio. Different resin systems require different mixing ratios and this is explained on the data sheet supplied with the resin. The component is left in the mould to cure at room temperature for 24 hours but it can take up to 14 days before it has reached its full strength. To speed up the curing and to make the component more resistant to high temperatures, it can be cooked in an oven (post-cured) at 4580C for several hours.

10.6.3 Vinyl ester resin

Some kit planes use vinyl ester resin systems which can be considered to fall between polyester resin and wet lay-up epoxy resin in terms of both strength and cost. These resin systems are mixed and handled in a very similar way to polyester and result in good chemical resistance and moderate strength. In most aircraft applications, the greater strength of epoxy is considered to outweigh the cost saving of vinyl ester.

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10.6.4 Phenolic resin

Interior wall panels and cabin furnishings are made using phenolic resin systems.This is because phenolic is the only resin system that is adequately re resistant and can meet the smoke and toxic fume emission requirements when burnt. It is not strong enough to be used for the structure of the aircraft and is generally more difcult to process than epoxy.

10.7 Working safely with composites

While it is obvious that working with composites can be sticky, messy and dusty, there are some real health hazards that mean precautions must be taken to protect the user. Resin systems by law must be supplied with safety information either on the container or in a data sheet and this is worth reading. Polyester resins are quite benign when mixed, except for the styrene fumes, so working in a well ventilated place or even outdoors is the main precaution against headaches and nausea. The hardener used with polyester is another story. It is often a strong peroxide called MEKP, which can burn the skin and cause severe permanent eye damage if spilled or splashed. Overalls and latex gloves should be worn to keep it off bare skin and goggles prevent it being rubbed or splashed into the eyes. With epoxy resins, the problem most often encountered is a skin reaction. This can accumulate with exposure so that the skin becomes sensitised after a period of trouble-free working. Some resin systems are much worse than others but they all have the potential to cause problems. Keep skin covered when working with epoxy. Use disposable latex gloves and preferably a barrier cream as well, try never to touch wet resin with bare hands. Epoxies also give off harmful chemical fumes, again some worse than others. A good-quality respiratory lter mask will be required and goggles too, to keep the substance out of the eyes. The workshop needs to be well ventilated, preferably with fume extraction fans. Working outdoors is not normally an option because airworthiness requirements demand a controlled environment and in any case the cure time may be more than 12 hours and good temperature and humidity cannot be guaranteed overnight. The problems do not stop when the resin has cured. Cutting and sanding the nished components brings its own problems. A respiratory mask and goggles are required to keep the irritating dust out of the eyes and lungs. A barrier cream or gloves should be used too, to stop tiny bres burying themselves in the skin. Dust extractors in the workshop are needed, along with good ventilation. Care should be taken not to spread too much dust around the building, so dusty clothes should be removed on leaving the work area. All these precautions mean that undertaking composites manufacture on a commercial basis requires some signicant expenditure on workshop

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equipment and preparation and on disposable protective clothing for the workers. Heating, air-conditioning and a de-humidier will also be needed to meet the requirements for a controlled environment. A calibrated thermo-hygrograph is also necessary to record the data for quality.

10.8 Review of the key points

In aerospace terms composite usually means long strands of strong bres in a matrix of epoxy resin. Glider manufacturers were the rst to embrace the technology, followed by military aircraft and light aircraft builders. Today large commercial aircraft have signicant elements of primary structure made in composite materials. Composites are strong in the direction of the bres but comparatively weak across them.The strength of composite materials is of a similar order to that of good aluminium alloys but their real advantage is in their high strength to weight ratio. The strength to weight ratio of carbon bre prepregs is over double that of good aluminium alloys. However, in practice, this advantage is only fully realised in relatively few applications, i.e. when the loading is mainly in a single direction, such as in wing-spar booms (or caps). The need to have strength in all directions can result in the strength to weight ratio for a nished composite component being similar to, or worse than, that for an aluminium part. Where composites really score is in the ability to place material in exactly the place where it is needed and nowhere else. This is the key to minimising structural weight using composites and is more easily achieved than with conventional materials. Designing in composite bring its own set of considerations. On larger aircraft, simply copying an aluminium alloy structure can result in very thick lay-ups with the attendant problem of through-thickness load transfer. Conversely, on lighter aircraft, items such as wing skins can end up being very thin and thus require stabilising against buckling. This is often achieved by creating a sandwich structure. Classically, composite parts are joined by being glued together. However, by using co-curing (where several parts are cured at the same time, as an assembly) the number of joints can be signicantly reduced. Mechanical fasteners (bolts, rivets, etc.) can be used but the resultant stress concentration usually means that local reinforcement is necessary. Load transfer between composite parts is best achieved by way of largearea shear connections. The variation in cost, strength, stiffness, workability, etc., of materials such as glass, aramid and carbon bres is so great that a mix of several different bres is often used in the same structure. Of the various resins available, however, only epoxy is really used for aircraft as its strength and dimensional stability characteristics outweigh the lower cost of other resins.