Aircraft Design to Benefit from Boeing-UNSW Linkage

While ultra-light composites could make aircraft more fuel-efficient and easier to maintain, predicting how these materials fail is vital for safe incorporation into next-generation designs, Sydney, Australia UNSW researchers say.

Aerospace and materials engineers from UNSW are working with Boeing Research and Technology through an ARC linkage grant to investigate the onset of failure in carbon fiber reinforced polymers – a composite material increasingly used in the design of modern aircraft.

“These materials have excellent strength-to-weight ratio, which is great for aircraft design, but we are still very conservative with our design philosophy,” says Dr. Garth Pearce, a lecturer in the UNSW School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

The objective of the project is to study the molecular composition of these materials to better understand their durability, and to establish a “physics-based method” for predicting their failure, to ultimately build lighter, longer lasting and safer aircraft.

“Can we better predict where, when and how cracking will start in the complex composite microstructure? Can we reduce the composite weight and improve reliability simultaneously?” Pearce asks.

“We believe that to find the answer… we need to deeply understand the material behaviour at all length scales, right down to the molecules that make up the polymers,” Pearce says.

Boeing has teamed up with UNSW because of its remarkable analytical research capabilities, which allow engineers and materials scientists to investigate the exquisite molecular detail of these composites.

According to Boeing, composites make up more than 50% of the new 787 aircraft by weight.

“If we can improve the performance of polymer composites, even marginally, we can have a huge impact on the weight of the next-generation of aeroplanes,” Pearce states.

The advantages are clear: strong and lightweight materials create opportunities for aircraft to become lighter, enabling better fuel efficiency and the capability to carry larger payloads or more passengers.