Aerospace materials:

Metals and composites

which is often described as a composite aircraft, contains 20% aluminum (by weight) which includes aluminum 7085, a relatively new aluminum-lithium alloy. Other segments of the aircraft industry are also continuing to use aluminum instead of composites. A regional jet being developed at Mitsubishi, for example, was initially going to be equipped with composite wings. Eventually, the company admitted it would go with aluminum wings and they would be a better overall solution. And Mitsubishi supplies composites to commercial aircraft manufacturers. Even on high-performance military jets, aluminum continues to have a significant role. For example, aluminum is used extensively in the J-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It makes up six forged bulkheads that form the aircrafts major weight-bearing portion of the airframe.

Aluminums will likely be in airframes for another century, while composites represent the new material on the block.
Two materials play major roles in modern aerospace: aluminum alloys for airframes and skin, and composites for structures. Heres a look at both.

Aluminum
There are some aviation observers who predict composites and titanium will rule the roost when it comes to aerospace airframes and structures. But that seems rather unlikely. Aluminum is still lightweight, technically advanced in terms of forming and alloying, and it relatively low cost, especially when compared to titanium and composites. Alcoa, for example, predicts 6% more aluminum will be used in planes over the next two years. The company, a major producer of aluminum, also points out that the current fleet of airliners and military jets are heavy users of aluminum, and newer designs continue to specify lots of aluminum. The Airbus A380, currently the largest passenger airliner in the world, contains 10 times the amount of aluminum used in the Airbus A320. And Boeings 787 Dreamliner,

Comparing aerospace composites

Material type Carbon/Epoxy GlaSS/Epoxy KEvlar/Epoxy Carbon/pEEK Carbon/phEnolIC NoMeNclature T300/934 IM7/8551-7 p75/934 aS4/3501-6 IM6/3501-6 E-GlaSS/934 K-49/7934 IM7/apC-2 FM5055 teNsile streNgth (ksi) 245 400 135 100 330 150-170 80-85 419 15-20 Modulus (Msi) 20 24 44 10 23 6-8 4 24 2.6-2.8 straiN (%) 1.0-1.2 1.62 0.2-0.5 1.0 1.5 2.75 1.85 1.6 1.0-1.2

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Aviation Basics
There are some basic terms common to all aerospace vehicles. Thrust, for example, is the force that pushes or pulls an airplane through space. Parasitic drag is the force that resists thrust and represents the force needed to push the plane through the air. Lift, a force created by air moving over the wings or airfoils, is perpendicular to the flow of air over the wings. In straight and level flight, lift directly opposes weight, the downward force created by gravity. Aircraft are free to operate in three dimensions and the pilot can change can its attitude and rotation about the three axis centred on the crafts center of gravity, the longitudinal, vertical, and horizontal axes. Motion about the longitudinal axis is termed roll and determines how much the wings are banked, Motion about the perpendicular axes is called yaw and it determines which way the nose of the plane is pointed. (Note: Aircraft do not necessarily fly in the same direction as the nose is pointed if there are significant winds.) Motion about the lateral axis is called pitch and determines how far the nose is tilted up or down. Pilots control the planes attitude and, therefore the direction it flies, by moving control surfaces on the plane. Ailerons, moving surfaces on the trailing or rear edges of the wings, control roll. Elevators, movable surfaces on the trailing edges of the horizontal stabilizer on the tail (or empennage) control pitch. And rudders control surfaces on the trailing edges of the vertical stabilizer, controls yaw.

Aircraft terminology
Perpendicular axis Yaw
Lift Rudder Drag Thrust Elevator Ailerons

Weight

Longitudinal axis Roll

Center of gravity

Lateral axis Pitch

Aluminum characteristics: Though lightweight, commercially pure aluminum has a tensile strength of about 13,000 psi. Cold working the metal approximately doubles its strength. Aluminum is usually alloyed with elements such as manganese, silicon, copper, magnesium, or zinc to further increase strength. The alloys can be made stronger by cold working. Some alloys are further strengthened and hardened by heat treatments. At subzero temperatures, aluminum is stronger than at room temperature and is no less ductile. Most aluminum al-

loys lose strength at elevated temperatures, although some retain significant strength to 500F. Besides a high strength-to-weight ratio and good formability, aluminum also has its own anticorrosion mechanism. When exposed to air, aluminum forms a hard, microscopic oxide coating which seals the metal from the environment. The tight chemical oxide bond is the reason aluminum is not found in nature; it exists only as a compound. Aluminum and its alloys, numbering in the hundreds, are available in all common commercial forms. Aluminum-alloy sheet can be formed, drawn, stamped, or spun. Many wrought or cast aluminum alloys can be welded, brazed, or soldered, and aluminum surfaces readily accept a wide variety of finishes, both mechanical and chemical. Because of their high electrical conductivity, aluminum alloys are used as electrical conductors. Aluminum reflects radiant energy throughout the entire spectrum, and is nonsparking and nonmagnetic. The most common aluminium alloy used in aerospace is 7075, which has zinc as the primary alloying element. It is strong, with a strength comparable to many steels, and has good fatigue strength and average machinability, but has less resistance to corrosion than many other aluminum alloys. Its chemical composition roughly includes 5.6-6.1% zinc, 2.1-2.5% magnesium, 1.2-1.6% copper, and less than half a percent of silicon, iron, manganese, titanium, chromium, and other metals. It is commonly produced in several heat temper grades. Aluminum matrix composites: Metal matrix composites (MMCs) consist of metal alloys reinforced with fibers, whiskers, particulates, or wires. Alloys of numerous metals (aluminum, titanium, magnesium and copper) have been used as matrices to date. In the NASA Space Shuttle, for example, 240 struts are made of aluminum reinforced with boron fibers. Superplastic aluminum: Superplastic metal forming, a process similar to vacuum forming plastic sheets, has been used to form low-strength aluminum into nonstructural parts such as cash-register housings, luggage compartments for passenger trains, and nonload-bearing aircraft components. But superplastic-formable high-strength aluminum alloy, a relatively recent development, is available for structural applications and

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Airplane glossary

Cross section of an airfoil

Mean camber Trailing edge

Upper camber Ailerons: The movable Leading edge sections of on outboard trailing edges of the airplanes wings used to make turns or change attitude of the plane (roll). Movement of the Lower camber ailerons mirror each other. So when the left aileron is up, the right one is down; and when the left one is down, the right one is up.
Empennage: The tail which includes the vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

Chord (C)

Elevator: The movable horizontal section of the tail which causes the plane to move up and down. Flaps: the movable sections of an airplanes wings closest to the fuselage. They extend from the wing to give the plane more lift at slow speeds. But at high speeds, flaps create drag. Fuselage: The central body portion of an airplane which accommodates the crew, passengers, and cargo, and connects to the wings. Horizontal stabilizer: The horizontal surface of the tail used to control the aircraft pitch. Propeller: A rotating airfoil on the front or rear of the airplane. The engine turns the propeller which pulls or pushes the airplane through the air. Rudder: The movable vertical section of the tail which controls lateral movement (yaw). Wings: The parts of airplanes which provide lift and support the entire weight of the aircraft and contents while in flight.

designated 7475-02. Strength of alloy 7475 is in the range of aerospace alloy 7075, which requires conventional forming operations. Although initial cost of 7475 is higher, finished part cost is usually lower than that of 7075 because of the savings involved in the simplified design and assembly.

Anatomy of an airfoil
Airfoil: Any part of an airplane designed to produce lift. It can be a wing, horizontal stabilizer or the fuselage itself. Leading edge: The portion of the wing that meets the air first. The shape of the leading edge depends on the airfoils purpose. If it is for high-speed flight, the leading edge will be sharp, as on most current fighter aircraft. If the airfoil is to generate the maximum amount of lift at relatively low speeds, as in a Cessna 150, the leading edge will be thick and fat. Trailing edge: Rear portion of the airfoil where air flowing across the upper surface joins the air flowing across the lower surface. Chord: An imaginary line drawn through an airfoils leading edge to its trailing edge. It defines how much upper and lower camber there is and how wide the wing is at any point along the wingspan. Camber: The curve of an airfoils upper or lower surface (upper or lower camber, respectively). It determines the airfoils thickness and how much lift the wing will create as air flows around it. A highspeed, low-lift airfoil has little camber. A low-speed, high-lift airfoil, like that on the Cessna 150, has a pronounced camber.

Composites
In the early days of composites, glass fibers were used to strengthen a matrix of epoxy resin. This glass reinforced plastic (GRP) was used for radomes and helicopter blades but found limited use in airplanes because of its low stiffness. In the 1960s, new fiber reinforcements were introduced, including Kevlar, an aramid with the strength of glass fibers but stiffer. Today, carbon fibers are the reinforcement of choice for aerospace composites. Carbon fibers in aerospace composites can be long and continuous, or short and fragmented, and they can be directionally or randomly oriented. In general, short fibers cost the least and fabrication costs are lowest. But, as with glass, properties of resulting composites are lower than those made with longer or continuous fibers. Milled fibers are the shortest carbon fibers used for reinforcement. They range in length from 30 to 3,000 microns, averaging

approximately 300 microns. Mean L/D ratio (length to diameter) is 30. Short chopped fibers with an L/D ratio of about 800 increase strength and modulus of composites more than milled fibers do. Cost of a molding compound reinforced with short fibers is about twice that of one containing milled carbon fibers. Long chopped fibers (up to two inches long) are often added to a thermosetting

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Aerospace composite terms

Adhesive: A thermoset resin such as epoxy or phenolic in the form of a film or paste, cured under heat and pressure to bond a wide range of composite, metallic and honeycomb surfaces. Aramid: A strong, stiff fiber derived from polymid. Kevlar and Nomex are aramids. Carbon fiber: Fiber produced by carbonizing precursor fibers based on PAN, rayon, or pitch. The term is often used interchangeably with graphite. However, carbon and graphite fibers are made and heat treated at different temperatures and contain different amounts of carbon. Composite materials: Materials made by combining two or more dissimilar materials such as fibers and resins and having structural properties not present in the original materials. Engineered core: The forming, shaping, machining or bonding of sheets or blocks of honeycomb into profiled and complex shapes for use as semi-finished parts of composite assemblies and structures. Fiberglass: Filaments made by drawing molten glass. Often used as a composite reinforcement. Filament winding: A process used to make composite-material components such as rocket casings and cylinders. Fiber filaments are impregnated with a resin and wound over a form or mandrel of the component. How the fibers are wound affects strength and stiffness. Honeycomb: A lightweight structure made from metallic sheets or on-metallic materials such as resin-impregnated paper or woven fabric formed into hexagonal nested cells, similar in appearance to a cross-section of beehive. The structure adds strength to finished panels and parts. Modulus of elasticity: The measure of a materials stiffness. The higher the modulus, the stiffer the material. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN): A polymer which gets spun into fibers used as a precursor material when making certain carbon fibers. Precursor: The PAN, rayon or pitch fibers from which carbon or graphite fibers are derived. Prepreg (pre-impregnated): A composite material made by adding reinforcement fibers or fabrics to a thermoset or thermoplastic resin matrix. Primary structure: A critical load-bearing structure on an aircraft. If this structure is severely damaged, the aircraft cannot fly. Reinforcement: A strong material which gets mixed with a resin to form composite materials. Reinforcements are usually continuous fibers, which may be woven. Fiberglass, aramid and carbon fibers are typical reinforcements. Fabrics can also be used as reinforcements, including those made using fiberglass, carbon, or aramid. Resin matrix: A polymeric substrate such as epoxy or PEEK. Sandwich panels: A stiff and lightweight panels consisting of thin sheets such as aluminum or cured prepreg laminate bonded to a low-density, rigid-core material such as foam or honeycomb. Spectra: A high strength polyolefin fiber from Allied Signal. Woven Spectra fabrics are strong and lightweight and are used in composite materials. Tow: An untwisted bundle of continuous carbon filaments. Yarn: A twisted bundle of glass filaments, not necessarily continuous.

glass/polyester sheet-molding compound to increase the stiffness of compression-molded parts. Continuous carbon fibers provide the ultimate in performance and weight reduction. Continuous fibers are available in a number of forms including yarns or tows containing 400 to 160,000 individual filaments; unidirectional, impregnated tapes up to 60 in. wide; multiple layers of tape with individual layers, or plies, at selected fiber orientation; and fabrics of various weights and weaves. The important design properties of carbon composites are their high strength-toweight and stiffness-to-weight ratios. With proper selection and placement of fibers, composites can be stronger and stiffer than steel parts with similar thicknesses but 40 to 70% less weight. Fatigue resistance of continuous-fiber composites is excellent, and chemical resistance is better than that of glass-reinforced composites, particularly

in alkaline environments. Like most rigid materials, however, carbon composites are relatively brittle. They have no yield behavior and resistance to impact is low. Thermal characteristics of carbon fibers differ from those of almost all other materials. Linear expansion coefficients range from slightly negative for 30 million-psi modulus fibers to approximately -1.3 106 in./(in.- F) for ultrahigh-modulus fibers. This property makes possible the design of structures with zero or very low linear and planar thermal expansion a valuable quality for components in precision instruments. Transverse coefficients of expansion are quite different typically 15 106 in./ (in.- F). MD

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