1 MEC509J2 Advanced Composite Materials Composites vs Metals (Aluminium Alloys) For some time it seemed as if composite materials would

replace aluminium as the material of choice in new aircraft designs. This put pressure on aluminium developers to improve their products. One result was aluminium-lithium (the first aluminiumlithium alloy, called 2020, was actually developed in the 1950s for the U.S. Navy). One of the main efforts of the developers is to save weight and cost compared to composites because the conventional aluminium manufacturing facilities can be used on aluminium-lithium. The early demonstrations of the 25-30% weight savings composites offer over aluminium constructions plus a substantial reduction in the number of parts required for each application represents a major attraction of these composites. The obstacles to a wider use today of composite materials are their high acquisition cost compared with aluminium, in buying a new generation of production equipment. However, the labourintensive construction can be solved by automation of the manufacturing process which is the key technology in developing composites. The use of tape laying machines, for example, can cut the time and cost of constructing composite components by a factor of ten pr more. The use of composites in the U.S. began in the early 1970s under USAF funding and the late 1970s NASA instituted a series of programs aimed at developing composite technology and succeeded in placing primary and secondary structural designs in commercial services. As a result, aircraft manufacturers became more comfortable with the materials and more efficient construction techniques were developed; the increased demand led to lower costs of composite materials. Metals are isotropic, having structural properties which are the same in all directions. Composites are anisotropic, a single ply having very high strength and stiffness in the axial direction but only marginal properties in the crosswise direction. Cross-plying based on load and function enables composites to meet and surpass the properties of metals. However, composites can be laid up to quasi-isotropic (having nearly isotropic properties). Composites versus Metals Composites differ from metals as their Properties are not uniform in all directions Strength and stiffness can be tailored to meet loads Possess a greater variety of mechanical properties Poor through the thickness (i.e. short transverse) strength Composites are usually laid up in essentially two-dimensional form, while metal may be used in bars, forgings, castings, etc Greater sensitivity to environmental heat and moisture

2 Greater resistance to fatigue damage Propagation of damage through delamination rather than through-thickness cracks

Advantages of Composites over Metals Light weight Resistance to corrosion High resistance to fatigue damage Reduced machining Tapered sections and compound contours easily accomplished Can orientate fibres in direction of strength/stiffness needed Reduced number of assemblies and reduced fastener count when co-cure or coconsolidation is used Absorb radar microwaves (stealth capability) Thermal expansion close to zero reduces thermal problems in outer space applications

Disadvantages of Composites over Metals Material is expensive Lack of established design allowables Corrosion problems can result from improper coupling with metals, especially when carbon or graphite is used (sealing is essential) Degradation of structural properties under temperature extremes and wet conditions Poor energy absorption an impact damage May require lightening strike protection Expensive and complicated inspection methods Defects can be known to exist but precise location cannot be determined.

Advanced Composite Structures Therefore the use of composites is based on the demonstration that Significant weight savings can be achieved Use of composites can reduce cost, or can be cost effective Composite structures have been validated by tests as meeting all structural requirements under aircraft environmental conditions Cost-weight trade studies should be conducted as part of design activity to determine appropriate use of composites versus metals

3 Structural weight reduction is the key advantage in using composite materials. The relatively high raw material cost of composites can be offset by carefully evaluating design and manufacturing processes to minimise the cost of fabrication, inspection and repair. Obviously the strongest of materials pound by pound, composites draw most of their strength from their hidden fibres, which come in many types and can be arranged in various patterns, some in three dimensional shapes by braiding or weaving. These complex patterns can produce shapes with enormous strength in all directions. Characteristics of Composites The most commonly used advanced composite fibres are carbon and graphite, Kevlar and boron. Carbon fibres are manufactured by pyrolysis of an organic precursor such as rayon or PAN (Polyacrylonitrile), or petroleum pitch. Generally as the fibre modulus increases, the tensile strength decreases. Among these fibres, carbon fibre is the most versatile of the advanced reinforcements and the most widely used by the aircraft and aerospace industries. Products are available as collimated, preimpregnated (prepreg) unidirectional tapes or woven cloth. The wide range of products make it possible to selectively tailor materials and configurations to suit almost any application. Matrix materials used in advanced composites to interconnect the fibrous reinforcements are as varied as the reinforcements. Resins or plastic materials, metals, and even ceramics are used as matrices. Today, epoxy resin is the primary thermoset composite matrix for airframe and aerospace applications. In all thermoset materials, the matrix is cured by means of time, temperature and pressure into a dense, low-void content structure in which the reinforcement is aligned in the direction of anticipated loads. An important element in determining the material behaviour is the composition of the matrix that binds the fibres together. The selected matrix formulation determines the cure cycle and affects properties such as Creep, Compressive and Shear strengths, Thermal resistance, moisture sensitivity, and Ultraviolet sensitivity, All of which affect the composites long-term stability. Characteristics of selection of composite matrices include: Epoxy Most widely used Best structural characteristics Maximum use temperature of 200oF (93oC) Easy to process Toughened versions now available

The matrix can also be affected by exposure to water. Since it is the matrix and not the fibre (except for Kevlar) that exhibits these hydroscopic properties are seriously

4 reduced, especially at high temperatures by exposure to moisture. For airframe structures, which experience rapid changes of environment, this loss of mechanical performance due to moisture absorption must be accounted for in design.

Kevlar (Aramid) is the trade name for a synthetic organic fibre. A density of 0.052lb/in3 gives Kevlar a specific tensile strength higher than either boron or most carbon fibres. When compared to other composite materials such as carbon and born, Kevlar has poor compressive strength. The inherent characteristic of Kevlar results from internal buckling of the filaments. However, Kevlar demonstrates a significant increase in resistance to damage compared to other composite materials. Kevlar fibres are hygroscopic and this fact must be considered in designing with Kevlar. High performance advanced composites are often used in stiffness-critical applications. Thus, when developing new materials, the tendency is to maximise longitudinal moduli while maintaining acceptable levels of strength, impact resistance, strain-to-failure, and fracture toughness. Tensile properties are fibre-dominated; therefore, the choice of fibre is dictated by the application. Compressive properties in unidirectional laminates are both fibre- and matrix dependent. While compressive moduli are related to the fibre, compressive strength is dictated by the neat matrix shear modulus. But for homogeneous, isotropic materials, the neat matrix strength will prevent or minimise intraply cracking in the composite under impact conditions, and will also insure acceptable transverse properties. Fracture toughness is important in matrices to minimise the propagation of cracks and defects, especially at crossly interfaces. Retention of compressive strength and strain after impact is an important property in high performance composites. It should be emphasised that, although damage prevention is important, damage containment is even more crucial. Therefore, to prevent impact generated cracks from propagating and causing excessive delamination, adequate interlaminar fracture toughness is required in composites used for the airframe structures. Guidelines for the synthesis of improved matrices have evolved primarily from experiential data which highlights weaknesses; Design criteria which considers the most dangerous threat to performance degradation Limitations in process technology Evaluations of the relationships between neat matrix properties and composite properties

5 These concepts reveal that the most desirable matrix and composite properties (ideal goals) are shown as follows: IMPACT

DELAMINATION

COMPRESSION

PROCESSING

Fibre Materials Types of Fibre Reinforcement The most common forms of reinforcement for structural composites are FIBRES, WHISKERS and PARTICULATES. They vary greatly in cost, availability and properties. The ultimate choice is determined by considerations of property requirements, processing possibilities and cost effectiveness. Fibres provide the greatest opportunity to tailor the material properties of the composite such that materials with whisker or particulate reinforcements are often considered as improved plastics rather than composite materials. Fibres have one axis much greater than its others with the smaller axes often being circular or near circular. Fibres are generally stronger and stiffer along the long axis due to the process of drawing the fibre. Continuous Fibres (where the fibre reinforcement runs continuously for a significant portion of the structure) are the most widely exploited type of reinforcement and fibres of greatly contrasting constitution and properties are widely available. These include glass, carbon (graphite), silicon carbide (SiC), alumina and organic fibres such as polyaramid and polyethylene. Short Fibres are often referred to as discontinuous reinforcement. Their shorter length may confer processing advantages (e.g. for use in moulding compounds) and is often either cheaper (due to reduced quality of fibre than used in continuous fibres) or more readily available.

6 Why Use Fibres? Manufacturing Fibres are a convenient form in which to include reinforcement to composites as they enable good directional control of the reinforcement and hence allow the design mreo freedom to specify particular geometry and properties for the finished component. Differing fibres forms and types can be used for different purposes in the same composite allowing hybrid composite constructions. Stiffness Fibres provide higher specific strength (and often stiffness) than to bulk materials. This is a result of a number of factors: The manufacture of fibres tends to align molecular or structural elements within the fibres Fibre tend to have a very fine strucure Fibre manufacture reduces strength-reducing defects Unique molecular level structures can be achieved in fibrous materials that are not achievable in bulk materials (e.g. by utilising high rates of cooling). Fibres such as carbon and the polymer fibres (aramid and polyethylene) in which a very strongly aligned structure is induced by the fabrication process have a tensile stiffness many times higher than that of the bulk materials. This stiffness may be less prominent in glasses and ceramic materials in which the structure is often simply finer that that of the bulk product. Anisotropy Those fibres described above as having orientation induced stiffness enhancement are also highly anisotropic. Transverse stiffness and strength, although very difficult to measure accurately in fibres, are often an order of magnitude or more less than in the longitudinal direction. Tensile Strength The tensile strength of carbon and the polymer fibres is greatly enhanced by the same alignment process as confers their stiffness. However, most fibres are brittle, sustain little or no plastic deformation prior to catastrophic failure and are highly susceptible to the distribution of flaws or weak points along the fibre. The fibre making process tends to eliminate a large portion of the flaes that would be found in bulk materials and this is why fibres are stronger than the bulk materials. The high strength may however be lost if the fibre is damaged in any way by abrasion, by its neighbours, by mishandling or by environmental attack. The fact that strength is controlled by the flaw distribution means that fibre strength varies on a statistical basis. This is usually treated as a Weibull Distribution which fits with the empirical data of shorter lengths being statistically stronger than longer lengths. This distribution of strength means that in a composite under a load close to its breaking point, individual fibres will fail on a sporadic basis resulting in distributed

7 damage throughout the material rather than the formation of a single crack. This factor is very important in the determination of the damage tolerance of composites. Compressive Strength The axial compressive strength of fibres is usually not reported as it is a difficult to measure. The compressive strength of fibre reinforced composites is controlled however by the compressive failure modes of the fibres including crushing, shearing and buckling. The latter is a highly likely mode of failure and occurs by Euler Buckling of the individual fibres. Whilst the Euler predictions will not provide an accurate prediction of the compressive strength of a composite (due to the provision of some lateral stabilisation provided by the matrix) it often provides a good relative assessment of the ability of a fibre type to resist buckling. Formability The size and material properties of a fibre will affect the ease with which they can be deformed and the radius to which they can be bent before failure both of which affect the Formability of the fibre. These parameters are especially important if the fibre is to be used in weaving, sewing, knitting or winding operations. The flexibility of a fibre is usually expressed as a ratio of the curvature (k) generated by a bending moment (M). Using the engineers theory of bending the flexibility of a fibre may be determined from:

Where E is the modulus of the fibre and d the fibre diameter The maximum curvature of the fibre may be determined using:

Where * represents the lower of the tensile and compressive strengths of the fibre. Carbon (Graphite) Fibres Carbon fibres have been made inadvertently from nature cellulose fibres such as cotton or linen for thousands of years. Modern carbon fibres were first introduced in about 1967 as a result of independent development work in the UK and Japan and are much stiffer than glass with comparable strength. The fibres were first produced from a polymeric fibre precursor, poly-acrylonitrile (PAN), which was already in tonnage production for textile applications. The reduced production costs of high performance carbon fibres (compared to those of other performance fibres such as boron) brought about a resurgence of interest into advanced composites in the civil aerospace industry. At the same time carbon fibres

8 were also found to be useful in a variety of recreational equipment. This increase in applications combined with the energy savings that were possible from making components from easily formable composites led to the availability of commercial quantities of the material at reasonable prices which further encouraged uptake of the technology. In the early 70s the cost of carbon fibre exceeded 200/kg. Modern carbon fibres posses improved properties and cost around 10-15/kg. As the price continues to drop and the mechanical properties values rises, the number of applications for continuous filament carbon fibres will undoubtedly grow. Carbon fibres are long bundles of linked graphite plates, forming a crystal-like structure known as turbostatic graphite, layered parallel to the fibre axis. This crystal structure is similar to graphite crystals except that the packing of the layer planes is not as regular as in the graphite crystals which makes the fibres highly anisotropic, with an elastic modulus of up to 1000GPa on-axis versus only 35GPa off-axis. Fibres can be made from several different precursor materials, and the method of production is essentially the same for each precursor: a polymer fibre undergoes pyrolysis under well controlled heating. The resulting fibre can have a wide range of properties, based on the orientation, spacing, and size of the graphite chains produced by varying these process conditions. Carbon fibres are typically 4-8m in diameter. In early development of carbon fibres it was noticed that the shear strength of the fibre to matrix bond was quite low. This has led to the development of a number of surface treatment processes aimed at improving this bond and consequently the inter-laminar shear strength (ILSS) of the composite. The most common method is known as the oxidative process, which cleans the carbon surface and then attaches chemical groups such as hydroxides that can bond with the matrix or size. Organic coatings (sizes) are also added to the fibres in some cases to further improve the fibre/matrix bonding and to protect the fibres although their value to the overall performance of the composite is not as high as when used with glass fibres due to the reduced sensitivity of carbon fibres to environmental degradation.

Fibrous Reinforcement Fibres used as reinforcement for composite components are available in a number of different configurations. Each fibre configuration has a range of factors that influence how they will perform in a composite. These factors are identified as;

Orientation Length

9 Shape Composition

It has been identified that the fibre orientation as the most important contributing factor to composite performance. The orientation of the fibres in a reinforcement can be broken down into three distinct categories, one dimensional or uni-directional reinforcement, planar reinforcement or 2 dimensional and 3-dimensional reinforcement. The one-dimensional geometry will have the maximum strength and modulus with the direction of the fibres. The planar geometry will have different strengths in each direction according to the direction of the fibres, e.g. 50% of the fibres at 0o and 50% at 90o will yield a value for strength of approximately half of the one dimensional value in each of the directions. The three-dimensional arrangement can be regarded as being isotropic but with greatly reduced reinforcing values in each of the principal directions.

Traditional Fabric Lay-ups A fabric lay-up is a structure comprised of layers of fibre plies as the reinforcement within the composite structure. The fibre plies usually take the form of one of the four main fibre orientation categories: Unidirectional, Woven, Multiaxial, and Other/random. The figure shows a simple 2 layer laminate of unidirectional fibres, the fibres are laid at 90o to each other in the X-Y plane.

Laminated composites are widely used to manufacture high strength structural components. The configuration of the laminate effects strength in the in-plane directions according to the lay-up sequence of the structure. Figure shows two different lay-up sequences of unidirectional plies. The unidirectional lay-up will have very high strength in the direction of the fibre but much lower strength transverse to the fibres. The quasi-isotropic lay-up will have strength equal in each in-plane direction, however, the actual strength value in each direction will be much lower than the strength of the unidirectional lay-up in the fibre direction.

Control of the lay-up sequence in the manufacture of composite components from laminates is an important consideration for final component mechanical performance.

10 The hand laying of laminates is a time consuming and hence expensive process. Thick composites require a large number of plies and debulking routines before conversion to a composite. One advantage offered by new manufacturing methods for reinforcements is the ability to preform the reinforcement.

Textile reinforcement Textile manufacture has taken place for thousands of years. With the coming of the industrial revolution the advanced production of textiles has changed dramaticallyi. Hand looms and mechanically controlled manufacturing facilities have been replaced by high-speed computer controlled manufacturing centres capable of producing large quantities of textile in short periods of time. The use of CAD/CAM machinery to design and manufacture textiles has resulted in low cost, high speed, and high volume textile production. Textile reinforcement manufacture for advanced composites has been completed in a number of different ways including weaving, braiding, knitting and variations of each. Each of these processes imparts different properties to the preforms and therefore the choice of process is dictated by the required properties of the product. The goal of these methods has been to enhance not only the mechanical properties of the composite components manufactured from the preforms, but also to ease the processing of the final composite and hence facilitate reduced manufacturing costs. Textile design methods allow the tailoring of yarn placement and direction and hence strength. This is easily demonstrated by comparing the transverse strength of a plain weave composite against a unidirectional composite. The use of the plain weave structure with 50% fibre in the 0 degree direction and 50% in the 90 degree direction gives the composite transverse strength. Unidirectional fibre composites while extremely strong in the direction of fibre alignment have greatly reduced strength transverse to the fibres, the strength in the transverse direction coming mostly from the matrix.

Textile Manufacturing Weaving Weaving is the most widely used textile manufacturing technique and accounted for over 70% of all two dimensional fabrics produced in 1989ii. Weaving of glass, carbon and aramid is achieved on a conventional loom with little or no modification. The use of conventional machinery allows cost to be kept to a minimum during the manufacture of 2D reinforcements It is stated that the fabric architecture can be altered to meet the specific mechanical properties required by the composite application. This is achieved by changing the

11 weave pattern, fibre type, tow type, tow count etc. architectures is unlimited. The number of possible

The use of single layer woven glass, carbon and aramid tows is well established within the composite structures industry for both aerospace and non-aerospace applications. Traditionally composite components manufactured from single or multiple layer woven reinforcement are manufactured using the lay-up technique. Fibre-reinforced laminates have been used for many years in the boat building industry, aerospace and automotive industries. The use of laminates has been limited by a number of factors, including manufacturing costs and some inferior in plane mechanical properties, when compared to some of the more mainstream materials such as aluminium alloys. In the lay-up process, layers of reinforcement in the form of dry reinforcement or resin impregnated plies (prepreg), are stacked on top of one another to form a laminate and then processed by various methods depending on the application of the final component. Hand lay- up of fibre laminates is a long and arduous process requiring a high amount of human contact time and does not readily lend itself to the cost conscious and lean production schedules of today. In the case of prepreg laminates, a high-added cost due to the specialised handling and storage requirements is incurred during their use. With rising interest in the use of composite materials for applications not related to the high tech aerospace and high-performance car markets, there is a need for the development and understanding of other methods of preform manufacture and composite processing that will be more attractive to these sectors.

3D Textile reinforcements

3D textile reinforcements have proportions of yarn in each of the X Y and Z directions. The Z direction is also known as through the thickness because the yarn will pass through the fabric from top to bottom or in the case of 3D woven fabric it may pass layer to layer. This quantity of yarn in the Z or through the thickness direction is the indicator of textile type. 3D textiles will have a much higher amount of yarn in the Z direction than the flat 2D textiles. 3D textile reinforcements also known as technical textiles offer the advantages such as shaped preforming, thereby reducing the preparation time for composite manufacture. Technical textiles can also provide improvements in mechanical properties of composite components. Areas highlighted in the literature where these improvements can occur are interlaminar shear strength, damage tolerance and impact resistance. Methods of manufacturing these technical textiles for use as composite reinforcements include 3D weaving, 3D braiding, 3D knitting, and stitching. Each of these methods has specific advantages and disadvantages.

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3D Woven Textiles Designers and engineers have taken out numerous patents on dedicated weaving machines that will place yarn in specific directions throughout the preform. Orthogonal, layer interlock and multi-axis woven textiles represent the three main categories of woven preform with distance fabrics and woven sandwich panels. In general orthogonal and angle/layer interlock 3D woven technical textiles can be easily manufactured with modification of standard weaving machinery used to produce cloth for textile applications. This simple manufacturing route provides a capability for cost reduction in composite component production. Multi axis weaving describes a process that incorporates the insertion of +- 45 o yarns into the fabric architecture. The process of manufacturing of these multi-axis preforms at present requires very specialised machinery and is undertaken by very few organisations. Results from mechanical testing state that 3-D woven composite components have benefits over existing materials used within the aerospace industry. A major advantage of technical textile usage is that techniques involved in the manufacture of these advanced textile structures allow the production of near net shaped preforms, thereby reducing a portion of the cost of component manufacture. The advantages of 3D woven composites over their 2D counterparts have been shown in publications from several authors. There are however a number of distinct disadvantages that have to be taken into consideration when deciding to employ a technical textile as reinforcement in a composite component. However the use of a composite based on a 3D woven preform will only be of benefit if the overall performance and cost aspects are balanced against each other In the Engineering Composites Research Centre 3D weaving approach, an orthogonal textile is produced using a standard weaving loom. The warp (or 0o direction) tows are used to provide through-the-thickness (TTT) binders that consolidate the preform The TTT tows are arranged in different patterns and levels of the reinforcement according to the net shape and mechanical properties required for the final composite component. 3D Woven reinforcement design The use of high-powered CAD systems coupled with advanced manufacturing techniques have made it possible to design and manufacture 3D textile reinforcements under computer control. Computer control of the weaving design and manufacture offers the advantages of visualisation of the weave structure and lift plan prior to manufacture as well as providing basic information for down stream applications such as finite element analysis. Complex weave architectures in the case of 3D weaving can

13 be lain out on the computer and visualised before production takes place.

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