Currently viewing the category: "Novel Materials/Tailored Structures"

A Brief History of Aircraft Structures

On August 19, 2012 · In Composite Materials, History, Novel Materials/Tailored Structures

Aircraft have changed enormously over the last century from the early Wright Flyer flown at Kittyhawk to the supersonic SR-71 Blackbird flown today. Of course the developments in aeronautical engineering can be broken down into separate divisions that have developed at different rates: a) the aerodynamics, b) power plant engineering, c) control, radios and navigation […]

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An Introduction to Composite Materials

On July 3, 2012 · In Composite Materials, Novel Materials/Tailored Structures

Throughout the last four decades the exploitation of fibre-reinforced plastics (FRP) in engineering structures has been steadily diversifying from sports equipment and high performance racing cars, to helicopters and most recently commercial aeroplanes. Composite materials are essentially a combination of two or more dissimilar materials that are used together in order to combine best properties, […]

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Smart Materials Application: Variable Geometry Chevron for Noise Reduction

On May 19, 2012 · In Case Studies, Composite Materials, Novel Materials/Tailored Structures

For many years engineers have been trying to harness mechanical work from thermal energy by taking advantage of the crystallographic phase change of shape memory alloys (SMA’s). SMA’s can exhibit strains of up to 8% actuated by a transformation of the internal crystal structure from martensite to austenite as the metal is heated. This solid […]

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Carbon Nanotube Hierarchical Composites for Interlaminar Strengthening

On May 11, 2012 · In Composite Materials, Novel Materials/Tailored Structures

The exploitation of conventional, continuous fibre-reinforced plastics in engineering structures has been steadily diversifying from sports equipment and high performance racing cars, to helicopters and most recently commercial aeroplanes. The main benefits of composite materials, such as their excellent specific strength and stiffness properties, must be viewed with respect to in-plane fibre-direction applications. However, if […]

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