SELECTION OF

MATERIALS FOR
AIRCRAFTS

Introduction

The aerospace industry is in business to

provide a means of transport, and the
broad service requirement to convey
maximum cargo at minimum cost is the
same as for other forms of transport.
However, the materials problems are
greatly intensified by the fact that failure
in the air is much more likely to involve
catastrophic losses, including loss of life,
than it is on the surface.

Design Requirements
Lifting against gravity is a expensive task.
Design must be efficient and light weight.
The types of aircrafts makes different
requirements of the aircraft.

Big commercial passenger aircrafts (Airbus A380)

Small commercial passenger aircrafts (Hawker Jet)
Military aircrafts.
Agriculture Aircrafts

There are 4 important cycles in a aircraft life

cycle

Ground
Takeoff
Cruise/operational
Landing

Design Requirements

Flying range (8000m 18000m)

Pressure will be low, moisture and air
packets will cause turbulence.
Life expected (6000 100000 hours)
Approx 25 years
Apart from fatigue corrosion and stress
corrosion were considered.

Three key factors

The three main constitutions of aircraft.

Payload (Passengers/Goods)
The carrier (The hull structure, control
system & crew)
The power plant.

Considerations

We cant loose on the weight carried by

the aircraft.
If the flight runs for a long time it must
carry the required fuel along with it. The
fuel carried by it, is the main constitution
to the weight.

Power plant efficiency improvement

Improve weight to thrust ratio.

Improve the Blade design

Good elevated temp properties Nimonic

series alloys
single crystal blade.
Blade cooling requires new techniques of
manufacturing.
Oxidation resistant coating on blade.
Reinforced ceramics on blade.

Aircraft structure

As small as the structure as large you can adapt the

payload. (In terms of weight)

To reduce the cost per unit weight is the objective.

Cost required to lift 1 kg of weight to orbit by a

spacecraft is $20000. That much is not required for a
aircraft. But we can save up to $1000 per kg of weight
in a aircraft.

Improve the property of the material thus we can

loose on weight.

Reduce the density, improve the strength.

Reduce the drag coefficient.

On Boeing777 a badly painted square foot area on

each flight of ten flights will increase the 21 gallons of
fuel consumption in each year.

Percentage of total take-off weight

Aircraft Structure
Wings
Fuselage
The

landing gear
Flab's
Rudder
Elevators
Ailerons
Spoilers

Wings

Fuselage

Landing Gears

Rudder

Elevators

Ailerons

Flabs

Spoiler

Wings

While in static at ground and taxiing,

The wings will bending down. Upper side will be in tension and lower
portion will be in compression.
This contributes considerably to life of the aircraft.

While taking off the loads are quite fluctuating. The wings will
act like a cantilever beam.
While in air, the load on the wings were quite consistent.

The wing will pose towards the upper side. Upper side will be in
compression and lower portion will be in tension.
This situation of load is heavy, for this criteria wing design made very
strongly.

The upper portion is made up of compression resistant

material must be highly stiff and resisting the buckling, the
lower portion is made up of tension resistant material high
fracture toughness is required.

Fuselage

Carries the total payload.

Acts vertically downwards, supported by the wings
exactly at the mid length. Thus the lower portion in
compression correspondingly the upper portion in
tension.
When the aircraft rolls, torsion is applied.
For a high altitude flight cabin must be pressurized,
then it is subjected to longitudinal and
circumferential tension.
Due to pressurization and de-pressurization it must
be designed against low cycle fatigue. Due to the
tension fracture toughness is required.

Landing Gear

Stresses are high while taking of when the full load of fuel is
applied.
Fatigue is applied while taxiing.
While landing vertical descending is 1m/s (>2mph). So
landing load cant be considered as shock load.
But the full aircraft load is applied on landing gear in touch
down. Stresses were high.
The landing gear must be retracted back to the fuselage,
for the aerodynamic performance. It should occupy
minimum space. So the density reduction will not applied
for this part. It must be designed for the low cycle fatigue.
Must posses high fracture toughness. Critical components
were heat treated.

Control surfaces

The control surfaces consist of the rudder,

elevators, ailerons and flaps.
These are lightly loaded components.
Flab must be robust against the flying debris
in the runway.
These are thin components, must have
adequate stiffness for their functional
requirements.
Acoustics also considered for the
components located near by the engine.

Materials selection

Thank you for the opportunity

Questions Please??