Outlook on ecologically improved composites for aviation interior and secondary structures

OLLER, SERGIO; BUGEDA, GABRIEL; MARTINEZ, XAVIER; GONG, HUGH; YI, XIAOSU; BACHMANN, JENS

CEAS Aeronautical Journal

Springer

Lugar: Vienna; Año: 2018

1869-5582

Today, mainly man-made materials such as carbon and glass fibres are used to produce composite parts in aviation.Renewable materials such as natural fibres or bio-sourced resin systems have not found their way into aviation, yet. Theproject ECO-COMPASS aims to evaluate the potential applications of ecologically improved composite materials in theaviation sector in an international collaboration of Chinese and European partners. Natural fibres such as flax and ramiewill be used for different types of reinforcements and sandwich cores. Furthermore, the bio-based epoxy resins to substitutebisphenol-A based epoxy resins in secondary structures are under investigation. Adapted material protection technologiesto reduce environmental influence and to improve fire resistance are needed to fulfil the demanding safety requirements inaviation. Modelling and simulation of chosen eco-composites aims for an optimized use of materials while a life cycleassessment aims to prove the ecological advantages compared to synthetic state-of-the-art materials. In this paper, thestatus of selected ecologically improved materials will be presented with an outlook for potential application in interior andsecondary structures.