What are aerospace materials?

Aerospace materials are defined as structural materials that carry the loads exerted on the
airframe during flight operations (including taxiing, take-off, cruising and landing). These are
the materials that are used in safety-critical airframe components such as the wings, fuselage,
empennage and landing gear of aircraft, tail boom and rotor blades of helicopters; and the
skins and thermal insulation tiles of spacecraft such as the space shuttle. Aerospace materials
are also defined as jet engine structural materials that carry forces in order to generate thrust
to propel the aircraft. The materials used in the main components of jet engines, such as the
turbine blades, are important to the safety and performance of aircraft and therefore are
considered as structural materials.

Aerospace materials are frequently metal alloys, although they also include polymeric based
materials, that have either been developed for, or have come to prominence through, their use
for aerospace purposes.

Required properties for an aerospace material:

The properties of materials that are important to aircraft include their 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)
and electrical properties (e.g. electrical conductivity). Understanding these properties and
why they are important has been essential for the advancement of aircraft technology over the
past century.
It is estimated that there are more than 120 000 materials from which an aerospace engineer
can choose the materials for the airframe and engine. This includes many types of metals
(over 65 000), plastics (over 15 000), ceramics (over 10 000), composites, and natural
substances such as wood. The number is growing at a fast pace as new materials are
developed with unique or improved properties.
Aerospace materials must be light, stiff, strong, damage tolerant and durable; and most
materials lack one or more of the essential properties needed to meet the demanding
requirements of aircraft. Only a tiny percentage of materials, less than 0.05%, are suitable to
use in the airframe and engine components of aircraft, helicopters and spacecraft.
Other demands on aerospace materials are emerging as important future issues. These
demands include the use of renewable materials produced with environmentally friendly
processes and materials that can be fully recycled at the end of the aircraft life. Sustainable
materials that have little or no impact on the environment when produced, and also reduce the
environmental impact of the aircraft by lowering fuel burn (usually through reduced weight),
will become more important in the future.

The main groups of materials used in aerospace structures are:

1) Aluminium Alloy:
Aluminium is the material of choice for most aircraft structures, and has been since it
superseded wood as the common airframe material in the 1920s/1930s. High-strength
aluminium alloy is the most used material for the fuselage, wing and supporting structures of
many commercial airliners and military aircraft, particularly those built before the year 2000.
Aluminium accounts for 70–80% of the structural weight of most airliners and over 50% of
many military aircraft and helicopters, although in recent years the use of aluminium has
fallen owing to the growing use of fibre–polymer composite materials. The competition
between the use of aluminium and composite is intense, although aluminium will remain an
important aerospace structural material.
Aluminium is used extensively for several reasons, including its moderately low cost; ease of
fabrication which allows it to be shaped and machined into structural components with
complex shapes; light weight; and good stiffness, strength and fracture toughness. Similarly,
to any other aerospace material, there are several problems with using aluminium alloys, and
these include susceptibility to damage by corrosion and fatigue. There are many types of
aluminium used in aircraft whose properties are controlled by their alloy composition and
heat treatment. The properties of aluminium are tailored for specific structural applications;
for example, high-strength aluminium alloys are used in the upper wing skins to support high
bending loads during flight whereas other types of aluminium are used on the lower wing
skins to provide high fatigue resistance.
2000 series Al-based alloys are mainly alloyed with copper and they are heat treatable to
strength comparable to steel. In addition, 2000 series Al-based alloys possess superior
damage tolerance, and better fatigue resistance than other series Al-based alloys.
7000 series Al-based alloys are mainly alloyed with zinc and they are heat treatable to the
highest strength than any other series Al-based alloys. Research has shown that the optimized
properties of 7000 series Al-based alloys can be obtained when the Zn/Mg ratio is around
three, and Zn/Cu ratio is around four.
The major effect of Li in Al is to reduce the density of Al-based alloys. When 1 wt% Li is
added, the density of Al-based alloy is reduced by 3%, while Young's modulus increases by
6%. Therefore, Al-Li based alloys are lightest Al-based alloys. Al-Li based alloys possess
low toughness and poor corrosion resistance, so they have to be optimised by adding other
impurities to them.
2) Magnesium Alloy:
Magnesium is one of the lightest metals, and for this reason was a popular material for
lightweight aircraft structures. Mg can decrease the weight of structure by approximately
33% when compared to the same volume of aluminium used and by 77% when compared to
the same volume of steel used. Magnesium was used extensively in aircraft built during the
1940s and 1950s to reduce weight, but since then the usage has declined as it has been
replaced by aluminium alloys and composites. The use of magnesium in modern aircraft and
helicopters is typically less than 2% of the total structural weight. The demise of magnesium
as an important structural material has been caused by several factors, most notably higher
cost and lower stiffness and strength compared with aluminium alloys and stress corrosion
cracking issue. Magnesium is highly susceptible to corrosion which leads to increased
requirements for maintenance and repair. The use of magnesium alloys is now largely
confined to non-gas turbine engine parts, and applications include gearboxes and gearbox
housings of piston-engine aircraft and the main transmission housing of helicopters.
3) Titanium Alloy:
Titanium alloys are used in both airframe structures and jet engine components because of
their moderate weight, high structural properties (e.g. stiffness, strength, toughness, fatigue),
excellent corrosion resistance, and the ability to retain their mechanical properties at high
temperature. Various types of titanium alloys with different compositions are used, although
the most common is Ti–6Al–4V which is used in both aircraft structures and engines. The
structural properties of titanium are better than aluminium, although it is also more expensive
and heavier. Titanium is generally used in the most heavily-loaded structures that must
occupy minimum space, such as the landing gear and wing–fuselage connections. The
structural weight of titanium in most commercial airliners is typically under 10%.
The use of titanium is greater in fighter aircraft owing to their need for higher strength
materials than airliners. Engine components made of titanium include fan blades, low-
pressure compressor parts, and plug and nozzle assemblies in the exhaust section.
Ti-based alloys can be divided into three categories based on the type of crystal structure:
alpha titanium alloys, beta titanium alloys, and alpha-beta alloys.
alpha titanium alloy has a lower density, higher creep resistance and better corrosion
resistance than beta titanium alloy
beta alloys have higher tensile and fatigue strength than alpha titanium alloys, and can be
easily fabricated into some semi products.
Alpha-beta alloy is the most widely used Ti-based alloy, because of the excellent
combinations of strength, fracture toughness, and ductility.

4) Steel:
Steel has been used in the aerospace industry ever since the first aircraft was built by the
Wright Brothers. Use of steel as a structural material in aircraft is small (under 5–10% by
weight). The steels used in aircraft are alloyed and heat-treated for very high strength, and are
about three times stronger than aluminium and twice as strong as titanium. Steels also have
high elastic modulus (three times stiffer than aluminium) together with good fatigue
resistance and fracture toughness. This combination of properties makes steel a material of
choice for safety-critical structural components that require very high strength and where
space is limited, such as the landing gear and wing box components. However, steel is not
used in large quantities for several reasons, with the most important being its high density,
nearly three times as dense as aluminium and over 50% denser than titanium. Other problems
include the susceptibility of some grades of highstrength steel to corrosion and embrittlement
which can cause cracking. Recently we see that there is an enormous growth of the nano
technology sector, which has led to the finding of nanosteel with ultra-fine grains, nanosize
particles. The nanosteels have a higher strength and better corrosion resistance due to the
prevention of dislocation movement by nanoparticles and fewer defects on the surface of
steel. Eg: 9Cr oxide.
5) Superalloys:
Superalloys are a group of nickel, iron–nickel and cobalt alloys used in jet engines. These
metals have excellent heat resistant properties and retain their stiffness, strength, toughness
and dimensional stability at temperatures much higher than the other aerospace structural
materials. Superalloys also have good resistance against corrosion and oxidation when used
at high temperatures in jet engines. The most important type of superalloy is the nickel-based
material that contains a high concentration of chromium, iron, titanium, cobalt and other
alloying elements. Nickel superalloys can operate for long periods of time at temperatures of
800–1000 °C, which makes them suitable for the hottest sections of gas turbine engines.
Superalloys are used in engine components such as the high-pressure turbine blades, discs,
combustion chamber, afterburners and thrust reversers.
6) Fibre–polymer composites:
Composites are lightweight materials with high stiffness, strength and fatigue performance
that are made of continuous fibres (usually carbon) in a polymer matrix (usually epoxy).
Along with aluminium, carbon fibre composite is the most commonly used structural material
for the airframe of aircraft and helicopters. Composites are lighter and stronger than
aluminium alloys, but they are also more expensive and susceptible to impact damage.
Carbon fibre composites are used in the major structures of aircraft, including the wings,
fuselage, empennage and control surfaces (e.g. rudder, elevators, ailerons). Composites are
also used in the cooler sections of jet engines, such as the inlet fan blades, to reduce weight.
In addition to carbon fibre composites, composites containing glass fibres are used in
radomes and semi structural components such as fairings and composites containing aramid
fibres are used in components requiring high impact resistance.
Commonly used composite materials include,
1) Ceramic matrix composite material,
2) Metal matrix composite materials,
3) Polymer matrix composites.
Ceramic matrix composites (CMC), such as silicon carbide (SiC), silicon nitride (Si3N4),
alumina (Al2O3), zirconia, aluminum titanate (Al2TiO5), and aluminum nitride (AlN) matrix
composite, have been widely studied in recent years because of their attractive properties,
such as high-temperature stability (to withstand operating temperature at 1400 °C), high
hardness, high corrosion resistance, and good versatility.
Ceramic matrix composites are normally used in high-temperature sections in aircraft such as
exhaust nozzle. Addition of nanomaterials such as the carbon nanotubes, and graphene
nanoplatelets (GNPs) have shown to improve the fracture toughness of ceramic matrix
composites.
Metal matrix composites (MMCs) hold promise for the aerospace industry because of their
reinforced higher yield strength, fracture toughness, low thermal expansion, and suitable wear
resistance.

Polymer matrix composites (PMCs) can be grouped into two categories namely thermoplastic
and thermoset, based on the differences in matrix characteristics. The prominent advantages
of polymer matrix composites are their well-known high specific strength and specific
modulus. For example, the density of carbon fibre (CF) reinforced epoxy composite is only
half that of Al-based alloys while, the tensile strength and elastic modulus are three times and
two times higher, respectively, than those of Al-based alloy.

7) Fibre–metal laminates:
Fibre–metal laminates (FML) are lightweight structural materials consisting of thin bonded
sheets of metal and fibre–polymer composite. This combination creates a material which is
lighter, higher in strength, and more fatigue resistant than the monolithic metal and has better
impact strength and damage tolerance than the composite on its own. The original FML was
called ARALL, which consists of thin layers of aramid fibre composite sandwiched between
layers of aluminium alloy. Difficulties with manufacturing and problems with moisture
absorption lead to the development of an alternative FML known as GLARE, which
comprises alternating layers of fibreglass composite and aluminium. GLARE has higher
strength, fatigue resistance, damage tolerance and corrosion durability than monolithic
aluminium, and was first used widely in the upper fuselage of the Airbus 380 and later in
cargo doors for the C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lift transporter. The future of FMLs in other
large aircraft is uncertain owing to high production and manufacturing costs.
Selection factors for aerospace structural materials
Cost: The whole-of-life cost of aerospace materials must be acceptable to the aircraft
operator, and obviously should be kept as low as possible. Whole-of-life costs include the
cost of the raw material; cost of processing and assembling the material into a structural or
engine component; cost of in-service maintenance and repair; and cost of disposal and
recycling at the end of the aircraft life.
Availability: There must be a plentiful, reliable and consistent source of materials to avoid
delays in aircraft production and large fluctuations in purchase cost. Manufacturing. It must
be possible to process, shape, machine and join the materials into aircraft components using
cost-effective and time-efficient manufacturing methods.
Weight: Materials must be lightweight for aircraft to have good manoeuvrability, range and
speed together with low fuel consumption.
Mechanical properties: Aerospace materials must have high stiffness, strength and fracture
toughness to ensure that structures can withstand the aircraft loads without deforming
excessively (changing shape) or breaking.
Fatigue durability: Aerospace materials must resist cracking, damage and failure when
subjected to fluctuating (fatigue) loads during flight. Damage tolerance. Aerospace materials
must support the ultimate design load without breaking after being damaged (cracks,
delaminations, corrosion) from bird strike, lightning strike, hail impact, dropped tools, and
the many other damaging events experienced during routine operations.
Thermal properties: Aerospace materials must have thermal, dimensional and mechanical
stability for high temperature applications, such as jet engines and heat shields. Materials
must also have low flammability in the event of aircraft fire.
Electrical properties: Aerospace materials must be electrically conductive to dissipate the
charge in the event of lightning strike.
Electromagnetic properties: Aerospace materials must have low electromagnetic properties to
avoid interfering with the electronic devices used to control and navigate the aircraft.
Radar absorption properties: Materials used in the skin of stealth military aircraft must have
the ability to absorb radar waves to avoid detection.
Environmental durability: Aerospace materials must be durable and resistant to degradation
in the aviation environment. This includes resistance against corrosion, oxidation, wear,
moisture absorption and other types of damage caused by the environment which can degrade
the performance, functionality and safety of the material

New materials potential for aircraft

Self-reliant materials such as self-cleaning polymerics and self-repairing materials have
potential for high use in flight vehicles. The self-cleaning materials can be found in the
natural environment. One example is lotus leaves. When water is poured over these leaves, it
rolls off as beads and takes away dirt on the leaves
The mechanisms of self-cleaning materials can be divided into two categories. The first is
based on the wettability of the surface, and the second one is the photocatalytic feature. On
the hydrophobic surface of self-cleaning materials, the material interface is protected from
polar molecules absorption as water rolls off the surface with the dirt. Light can be captured
by a photoactive surface, and this process produces oxidative radicals which can mineralize
and absorb organic molecules.
Self-repairing materials can protect the integrity of structures and maintain the function of
materials after mechanical damage and corrosion. The self-healing materials can be divided
into two categories, which are extrinsic self-healing and intrinsic self-healing. The extrinsic
self-healing relies on the healing agent, which is stored in materials in advance by two types
of containers: pipelines and microcapsules. The cracks can be re-bound by the releasing of
healing agent to crack planes because of the capillary effect.
Intrinsic self-healing is mostly under the condition of manual intervention, where sealing the
crack and restoring the strength of material is done by heating these materials over the glass
transition temperature because of the interdiffusion of molecular and entanglement of glassy
polymer. Intrinsic self-healing can be achieved by some other methods such as photo-induced
healing, reversible bond formation healing, and chain ends recombination.
Smart Materials:
The term smart material is generally defined as a material that can change one or more of its
properties in response to an external stimulus. For example, the shape of the material will change in
response to different temperature or application of electrical charge or presenting of magnetic field.

Generally, the smart materials include,

1) Piezoelectric Materials
Basically, piezoelectric materials are a transducer between electricity and mechanical stress.
Regarding the application of piezoelectric material, there are two main functions which are shape
control and vibration control.

Vibration is an unwanted effect in aircraft because it can contribute to stress concentration, material
fatigue, shortening service life, efficiency reduction and noise. Conventionally, it is difficult to provide
a precise active damping which produces a vibration with anti-resonance frequency. By the
piezoelectric material, it can be used as sensor and actuator at the same time, so it has a fast-
enough response to produce the anti-resonance vibration.

Conventionally, the flap, rudder and elevator are adjusted by electronic motor or mechanical control
system like cable or hydraulic system. By applying piezoelectric actuator, no discrete surfaces are
required because the control surface can be changing the sharp itself in order to change the
aerodynamic feature.

2) Conducting Polymer

Conducting polymer is a new type of material which having the attributes of both metals and
polymers. As conducting polymers have the advantages of high conductivity, intriguing electrical
properties and ease of production, it is widely used for electrostatic dissipation, electromagnetic
interference shielding, light emitting diodes and anticorrosion coating for both aircrafts and
spacecrafts.

3) Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs)

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are metallic alloys which undergo solid-to-solid transformations caused
by temperature and stress changes and they can recover to their original state. With the ability to
recover strain in the presence of stress, SMAs are defined as one kind of smart materials which are
highly demanded in aerospace industry. These SMAs have been used in the chevron, so that we can
reduce the noise and as well improve the efficiency of the aircraft by reducing the drag force acting
on it.

5) Fire Resistant Composite

Phenolic polymer composite is one of the most widely used fire resistant composite in aircraft cabin
because they are low flammability and good fire resistance. They change their molecular structure at
high temperature and become better fire resistance.

Glass reinforced phenolic composites are used in aircraft cabins. About 80% - 90% of the interior
furnishings in modern aircraft is Phenolic composite such as, ceiling panels, interior wall panels,
partitions, galley structure, large cabinet wall, structural flooring and overhead storage bins.

24,23, 8in thick

Pcd 110mm
Virtual motors
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