Ecological and Multifunctional Composites for Application in Aircraft Interior and Secondary Structures

Composites used in aviation today are carbon-fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) for fuselage, wings, etc. and glass-fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) for interior. But all these composite materials have one thing in common: they are man-made and quite energy-intensive in production. Renewable materials like bio-fibres and bio-resins have been under investigation for a long time for their use in composites but so far they have not made it into a modern aircraft in high amounts. In EU-China research project ECO-COMPASS, the Chinese and European partners focus on the following materials for ecological improved composites to be applied in interior and secondary structures: - Bio-sourced and recycled fibres, - Bio-sourced resins, - Sandwich cores, - Conductive Toughening Layers, - Adapted protection technologies to fulfil the demanding requirements of aviation. The main challenge for the interior parts are the fire properties of the final parts with fumes, toxicity and energy released during burning. What’s more, the materials selected need to be processed very easily to produce this category of part at the lowest price (including material cost reduction in comparison to the reference material used). In addition, as always, the final weight of the part is a pre-requisite for aerospace industry. For secondary structure parts, a minimum of mechanical properties are requested for this category of part, with again the lowest possible final cost for the parts to be produced (material and process). The final weight of the part is also an important point to consider