Processing of Aerospace

Materials – Part I (ME-772)

Lecture 1:
Introduction, Aircraft parts, design criteria
4 January 2022
Ref:
Amol A. Gokhale, Professor, Mechanical Engineering 1. A P Mouritz 3.2
Room S05 ME Department, extension 7399 2. Pradip K Saha Chapter 1
gokhale@iitb.ac.in 3. https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/
k-12/airplane/airplane.html
 The course evaluation scheme
Type of Syllabus Schedule Marks
evaluation
Quiz 1 L1 to L7 lectures 28th January 2022 2022 (Fri) 10
3:30 to 4:30 pm
Mid-Sem Exam L1 to L13 lectures As per Institute Time Table 35
Quiz 2 L14 to L20 lectures To be announced 10
End –Sem Exam All lectures, more emphasis on As per Institute Time Table 35
mid-sem onward lectures
Seminar Broad topics will be suggested Report + presentations in March 5+5 = 10
TOTAL 100

Audit: Must get a minimum DD grade for the course to be counted

TA’s: Ashish Dhole (Ph D Scholar), Gaurav Kumar (Ph D Scholar)

 Reference books
(2012) (2006)
Baseline text book Manufacturing practices emphasised
 Reference books

(2017) (2017) (2006)

Basics of aircraft design, Al, Detailed understanding of Al and Detailed understanding of
CFRP) Ti alloys Ni base super-alloys
The first heavier- than- air flight

1903
 Aerospace systems and subsystems
Aeroengine
• Aircraft/ Helicopter Airframe
– Airframe
– Gas turbine engine
(Aeroengine)
• Missiles, rockets Rockets
– Airframe
– Rocket engines
– Ramjet/scramjets

• Materials
− Structural materials
− Functional materials
(Coatings) Rocket engines
 Structural materials for airframes
Function: Carry loads exerted on the airframe during
flight operations (taxiing, take-off, cruising and landing)
Use: safety-critical airframe components
Rocket
Aircraft

Helicopter Space shuttle

www.nasa.gov
Parts of aircraft

Aircraft Helicopter Spacecraft

1. Fuselage 1. Fuselage 1. Similar as aircraft
2. Wings 2. Tail boom 2. Thermal insulation
3. Stabilizers 3. Rotor blades tiles
4. Landing gear
5. Flight controls surfaces
 Types of loads
1. Weight or gravity force
2. Lift (aerodynamic force)
3. Thrust
4. Drag (aerodynamic force)

Asymmetric airfoil creates lift pressure

 Fuselage: function, loading, properties
• Skin: carries cabin pressure (tensile). Torsion loads are experienced during
roll and turn
• Longerons carry longitudinal tensile and compressive loads
• Circumferential frames carry radial loads and maintain fuselage shape, and
redistribute loads into the skin (prevent fuselage skin from buckling and
collapsing)
• Bulkheads carry concentrated loads of wing box, wing connections,
landing gear

Tension

Compression

During flight, upper surface of fuselage is loaded in tension and lower surface
in compression
 Fuselage structure
Monocoque
(unreinforced thick shell,
load bearing)
Higher thickness to avoid
buckling

Better strength
The stringers, frames to weight ratio
resist bending,
compression and
torsion

Semi-monocoque Semi-Monocoque
structures offer (thin shell, reinforced/
higher strength to stiffened by frames and
weight ratio stringers) Both designs may be used, but semi-
monocoque structures are used more
widely
Airframe structure is complex!
 Properties and materials required

Strength, Young's modulus, fatigue crack initiation resistance, fatigue crack growth
resistance, fracture toughness and corrosion resistance (for the skin) are important.

Materials used:
• Al alloys
• CFRPs
• Titanium alloys for high supersonic aircraft
• High strength steels (missile casings in initial stages)
 Wing: functions and loading pattern
• Transmits all air load to the central attachment and then to fuselage
• Wing has covers in the form of skin stiffened by stringers, spars and ribs
• Covers take bending loads. Ribs keep cover in shape and reduce buckling
of skin and stringers
• Spars and covers take torsion loads during twisting of wing
 Wings: Important material properties
• When on the ground the wings hang down under their own weight, the weight of
fuel stored inside them, and the weight of engines if these are wing-mounted.
This creates tensile loads on upper surface, compressive on the lower surface
• During flight when the loads are much higher, however, the bending loads are
reversed. The wing bends upwards in flight to support the weight of the aircraft,
and this generates compression in the upper surface and tension in the lower
surface
• Design of upper wing structure is based on compressive yield strength and
compressive modulus of elasticity because flight loads are significantly more
than taxiing loads
• Lower skin structure design properties are tensile strength, tensile yield strength
and tensile modulus. In addition, high fatigue resistance, longer critical crack
length, higher residual strength and good stress corrosion cracking resistance
are required.
A combination of Al
alloys and CFRPs are
used
 Connections
• Wing-box and wing connections (attachments to the fuselage
and landing gear ) are more highly loaded than the wing itself
• Made of materials with higher strength, fatigue life and
fracture toughness than the aluminium alloys used in the
main wing section
• In modern aircraft they are usually constructed with titanium
alloy or carbon–epoxy composite
 Control surfaces of the wing
• Flaps (control lift and drag), ailerons (control roll), spoilers (change lift)
• These are lightly loaded
• Vulnerable to bird strike and flying debris during take off and landing.
Need high impact resistance.
• Control surfaces are usually constructed with thin skins supported by
internal stiffeners or foam/cellular materials (sandwich materials)
 Empennage and their control surfaces
• Empennage = (vertical stabiliser + rudder) + (horizontal stabilisers + elevators) +
the rear section of the fuselage to which they are attached
• Provides stability and directional control to the aircraft
• Horizontal stabiliser is an upside-down wing, designed to provide a downward
force (push) on the tail (elastic modulus, strength, fatigue resistance and fracture
toughness). It counters the weight of the nose.
• Elevator is the small moving section at the rear of the horizontal stabiliser used to
generate the pitching motion
• Rudder generates yaw, while vertical stabilizer controls yaw, which is the side-to-
side movement of the aircraft nose
• Loads on the rudder and elevator are smaller, although properties such as
stiffness, strength and toughness are still critically important

Al alloys and
composites are used
 Landing gear (undercarriage)
• Consists of structural members,
hydraulics, energy absorption
components, brakes, wheels and tyres
• Structural members support heavy
landing loads
• Functions: to support heavy take-off
weight and high impact loads on
landing
• Require materials with high strength,
good fracture toughness and fatigue
strength

Most commonly used material: High

No need to remember individual
strength steels. Lately, Ti alloys have
components of the landing gear!
partly replaced steels. Few
components made of Al alloys.
 Origin of various property requirements

• High stiffness and strength to withstand the bending, shear and torsion
loads
• High fatigue strength to resist crack initiation and failure from fluctuating
loads owing to (a) take off and landing loads and (b) in-flight load
variations due to flight manoeuvring, turbulence and wind gusts
– Military aircraft: load fluctuations are higher (higher frequency and speed)

• Since fatigue is enhanced under tensile fluctuating loads and not

compressive, the materials requirements are different for upper and lower
surfaces of wings. In lower wing components fatigue resistance is a
primary design property while it is only a secondary design property in
upper wing components.
 Properties of importance
• Physical properties (e.g. density)
• Mechanical properties (e.g. stiffness, strength and toughness)
• Chemical properties (e.g. corrosion and oxidation)
• Thermal properties (e.g. heat capacity, thermal conductivity)
• Electrical properties (e.g. electrical conductivity)
Materials use in various airplanes

F/A 18 F-22
51 11
13 33
16 5
9 35
11 16
 Resolution in 235th Senate meeting
held on November 20, 2018
• “IIT Bombay expects one hundred percent attendance (100%)
from students.
• If the attendance of the student, as counted with effect from
the first contact hour, falls below eighty percent of the total
attendance expected, the 'DX' grade will be awarded in that
course.
• Only exception to this rule are courses where the instructor
has declared that no DX grade will be awarded.“

• In ME772 course, DX grade will be awarded for less than 80%

attendance.
 Assignments 1 (for self study)
• Explain the role of control surfaces like ailerons,
elevators, rudder and flaps (in one or two
sentences)
• Why do aircraft experience fatigue loads? What
are the two types of fatigue loads experienced in
the life cycle?
• Describe semi-monocoque structure. Why is it
preferred over purely monocoque structure?
• Which properties should a material have to
qualify for use on lower wing skin and why?
Reference slides
 The Composition-structure-properties-
performance relationship
Raw Materials and Processing conditions
(Melting, Casting, Manufacturing Processes, heat
treatment, Fibre Architecture, Infiltration)

Alloy composition, impurities Defects Macro/Microstructure Crystallographic

Texture

Component design Properties Service conditions

Components performance
Weight distribution of aircraft
Parts of airframe
Rockets
 Fuselage parts

Frames
Stringers

Bulkheads
Bombardier C-series Fuselage

Fuselage = skin + stiffeners like bulkheads,

frames, stringers etc
Property requirements
Materials used for the Boeing 777
The pyramid of composition- microstructure-
processing and properties

Properties
 Useful to…

To those engineers working or aspiring to work

in the design, manufacturing and operation of
– Aircraft
– Missile
– Space vehicles, such as launch vehicles, orbiters
– Helicopters
– Reusable spaceships