With their light weight yet strong structural properties, aviation’s use of composite materials has expanded and accelerated over time. With a next generation of composites on the horizon, and new tools including AI-developed structures enabling biomimicry and other advances, we sat down with Edoardo Depase, head of marketing for aerospace and defense at Solvay Composite Materials, to talk about composites’ future applications within the industry.
The trajectory of composites in aviation is clear, Depase tells us. “After their widespread introduction in programs like the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380 and A350, composite materials have now been used in large scale commercial applications for decades. We believe their use will continue to grow in the coming years and will be mostly fuelled by their introduction in novel commercial aerospace fields, such as urban air mobility, and eventually by their increased use in next-generation single aisle programs.”
Inherently, the need to make urban air mobility and other eVTOL vehicles as lightweight as possible — driven particularly by the intersection of range, endurance and battery requirements for this emerging class of airframes — means that widespread use of composites will be vital.
On the next-generation narrowbodies, Depase says, “the utilisation of composite materials in primary and large acreage components at rates that will be able to support next generation single aisle production constitutes one of the next big frontiers in the evolution of composites in commercial aviation.”
The high rate of production of these narrowbodies will require composites producers to increase their own production rate accordingly — a challenge for a supply chain that has been stretched thin since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the same time, aviation’s push towards its net zero targets, and especially the decision by some airlines and other companies to aim for those targets in advance of the wider 2050 goal, is also driving demand for a new generation of composites — and how these materials are manufactured, used, and recycled.
“Composites, through the light-weighting they bring, inherently allow for greater fuel efficiency and hence a more sustainable aviation,” Depase says. “However, the discussion of sustainability within composites does not only include lightweighting, but is expanded to many other areas such as comprehensive life cycle analysis, recyclability, and the use of bio based raw materials.”
Early composites within the cabin environment in particular have faced issues with recyclability, often as a result of adhesives and safety coatings, such as those to reduce flammability and smoke toxicity.
Looking to the future, Depase says, “digitalisation of composites will be a key enabler to achieving many of the challenges the industry is — and will be — facing. ‘Composites 4.0’ will enable shorter development times during the initial stages of an aerospace program. In production, it will allow for greater efficiency and higher levels of quality and process capability. Continuous improvement will be generated by AI systems and tools and will be essential to bring composites to the next level of adoption within the aerospace and defense industry and beyond.”
AI in particular will be a game-changing technology for composite development, as structural tools such as biomimicry are introduced into aviation. Understanding and fully taking advantage of these powerful tools will be crucial.
“The way data is generated, analysed and ultimately modeled is a fundamental pillar for our industry. Current methodologies have been proven for decades, while also constituting an opportunity to improve and shorten the development cycles,” Depase concludes. “This is a long term topic that will require many years to develop and to be applied to the aviation industry.”
Author: John Walton
Published 21 December 2023
Feature image: Airbus A350-900 Fiji Airways MSN299 on flightline