1 - Aerospace engineering requirements in building with composites

Abstract

The growing use of composite material has arisen from their high specific strength and stiffness when compared to the more conventional materials, and the ability to tailor their structure to produce aerodynamically more efficient structural configurations. In this introductory chapter, it is argued that fiber-reinforced polymers, especially carbon fiber-reinforced plastics can and will, in the near future, contribute more than 50% of the structural mass of an aircraft. Of course, affordability is the key to survival in aerospace, whether civil or military and therefore, effort should be devoted to low-cost manufacturing methods in addition to analysis and computational simulation of the manufacturing and assembly process. The simulation of the structural performance should not be neglected since they are intimately connected. Virtual reality models in engineering prior to manufacturing to identify potential problems will make Industry 4.0 and the smart factory for composites a reality. Industry 4.0 focuses on data-driven manufacturing, where in the future, billions of machines, systems, and sensors will communicate with each other and share information, physical systems connected to digital twins, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This will not only enable companies to make design and production significantly more efficient, but it will also give them greater flexibility when it comes to tailoring production to meet market requirements.