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Very stiff fibres woven into engineering’s future: a long-term perspective

  • Stretching the Endurance Boundary of Composite Materials: Pushing the Performance Limit of Composite Structures
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Abstract

An account is given of the development of the discipline and practice of composite materials from the 1960s to the present as seen by the author. The present time is so pregnant because composite materials are now displacing metallic materials as the prime material for the construction of the airframes of the new large commercial airliners. Observations are made on the advantages of the Airbus A380, Boeing’s 787 and the planned Airbus A350. Some of the difficulties are dealt with and solutions proposed for problems of testing and deterioration. And some final remarks are made on environmental concerns.

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References

  1. Kelly A (1996) Philos Trans R Soc Lond A 354:1841

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  2. Kelly A, Stearn RJ, McCartney LN (2006) Compos Sci Technol 66:154

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Acknowledgements

This article has its origins in the invitation to the author to give lectures throughout Australia on composite materials for a general audience of engineers. The lecture to be sponsored by Engineers Australia and the Australian branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society. The additional kind invitation from Drs. Peter Beaumont and Young W. Kwon to participate in the Conference in Madeira enabled the author to bring himself up to date on a number of issues and provided recent and topical examples of work on composite materials referred to in this article. I am very grateful to Dr. Murray Scott for inviting me to Australia; to Drs. Peter Beaumont and Young W. Kwon for inviting me to participate in the Madeira Meeting; and to the following persons for the provision of information, illustrations and advice: Karl Heinz Rendigs and Rob Bray of Airbus; Ali Yousefiani and John Hart Smith of Boeing; Alastair Johnson and his colleagues of DLR Stuttgart and Koln; A Bunsell (Ecole des Mines), Robert Crane, former scientist at USAF Materials Research Laboratory, Dayton; Carlos Gonzalez (Polytechnic University of Madrid); Josef Jancar (Brno University of Technology); A Kinloch (Imperial College, London); Neil McCartney (NPL); Ivana Partridge (Cranfield Institute of Technology); Ramesh Talreja (Texas A & M University); and Ole Thybo Thomsen (Aalborg University). A short version of this lecture appeared in the February 2008 issue of Materials Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gordon Laboratory, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, England, UK

    Anthony Kelly

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  1. Anthony Kelly
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Correspondence to Anthony Kelly.

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Kelly, A. Very stiff fibres woven into engineering’s future: a long-term perspective. J Mater Sci 43, 6578–6585 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-008-2864-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-008-2864-y

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