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A critical review of nanotechnologies for composite aerospace structures

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Abstract

The past decade extensive efforts have been invested in understanding the nano-scale and revealing the capabilities offered by nanotechnology products to structural materials. Integration of nano-particles into fiber composites concludes to multi-scale reinforced composites and has opened a new wide range of multi-functional materials in industry. In this direction, a variety of carbon based nano-fillers has been proposed and employed, individually or in combination in hybrid forms, to approach the desired performance. Nevertheless, a major issue faced lately more seriously due to the interest of industry is on how to incorporate these nano-species into the final composite structure through existing manufacturing processes and infrastructure. This interest originates from several industrial applications needs that request the development of new multi-functional materials which combine enhanced mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. In this work, an attempt is performed to review the most representative processes and related performances reported in literature and the experience obtained on nano-enabling technologies of fiber composite materials. This review focuses on the two main composite manufacturing technologies used by the aerospace industry; Prepreg/Autoclave and Resin Transfer technologies. It addresses several approaches for nano-enabling of composites for these two routes and reports latest achieved results focusing on performance of nano-enabled fiber reinforced composites extracted from literature. Finally, this review work identifies the gap between available nano-technology integration routes and the established industrial composite manufacturing techniques and the challenges to increase the Technology Readiness Level to reach the demands for aerospace industry applications.

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Abbreviations

CFRP:

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer

CNF:

Carbon nanofiber

CNT:

Carbon nanotubes

CTE:

Coefficient of thermal expansion

EMI:

Electromagnetic interference

FRP:

Fiber reinforced polymer

GFRP:

Glass fiber reinforced polymer

GNP:

Graphene nanoplatelets

MWCNT:

Multiwall carbon nanotubes

ne (prefix):

Nano-enabled

PVA:

Polyvinyl alcohol

PZT:

Lead zirconate titanate

RT(M):

Resin transfer (molding)

SHM:

Structural health monitoring

TRL:

Technology readiness level

VARTM:

Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the European Space Agency under the contract 4000107311/12/NL/PA (NEFELI activity) and 4000108124/13/NL/MV (NESTOR activity).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, University of Patras, 26504, Rio-Patras, Greece

    Vassilis Kostopoulos, Athanasios Masouras, Athanasios Baltopoulos, Antonios Vavouliotis & George Sotiriadis

  2. Adamant Composites Ltd., Agias Lavras Str., 26504, Platani-Patras, Greece

    Athanasios Baltopoulos, Antonios Vavouliotis & George Sotiriadis

  3. Materials and Components Technology Division, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA/ESTEC), 2200 AG, Noordwijk, ZH, The Netherlands

    Laurent Pambaguian

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Kostopoulos, V., Masouras, A., Baltopoulos, A. et al. A critical review of nanotechnologies for composite aerospace structures. CEAS Space J 9, 35–57 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-016-0123-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-016-0123-7

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