Self-repairing aircraft?

[alistair®]

Hello

I work for a publisher of engineering journals and thought some of you may find the following an intriguing read.

Self-repairing aircraft could revolutionise aviation safety (http://info.emeraldinsight.com/tk/aircraft)

Regards

[NutLoose]

Thank you, indeed an interesting read, I do wonder though how you would assess the damage after it had healed itself and if you would need to delve deeper into the fault.

[alistair®]

I must say it does sound a bit sci-fi doesn't it! Glad to see it's work done in the UK though :ok:

[Vortechs Jenerator]

That's a joke right? Is it April fools day.

One pissed up baggage handler drives into the fuse and it'll bleed to death:)

It's garbage IMO.

Make a system that replaces worn out parts and fixes (much more common than cracked skin) electrical Gremlins and stands in the pissing rain replacing leaking fuel vales and I'll be impressed!

[alistair®]

Vortechs I think you should ring the man in the article and find out ;)

[cockney steve]

I fail to see any advantage in carting around a substrate of uncured resin/catalyst....logic dictates that if the stuff were all cured in the first-place, the laminate would be stronger and less prone to damage anyway.

the assertion that composite structures are going to save weight, is not borne out in the real world.

IMO, this is another intrigueing inventoin looking for an application.

[Vortechs Jenerator]

I'd also like to see this "vascular" system after it's been bouncing around the sky with many heat/freeze cycles and having umpteen skydrol/fuel leaks do their special thing on them before I "phone the man in the article":)

[Jet II]

I fail to see any advantage in carting around a substrate of uncured resin/catalyst....logic dictates that if the stuff were all cured in the first-place, the laminate would be stronger and less prone to damage anyway.


That did strike me as a flaw in his cunning plan..

And what if the aircraft is parked somewhere where the temperatures are outside the cure range for resin?

[Vortechs Jenerator]

localised heat damage/csorching from ECS packs/leaks!

I love the way inventors/dsigners think aircraft operate "as it says on the tin". Have a look in the panels of a 15 year service (well looked after) ailiner and see the scars of leaks spills, tooling damage etc that naturally occur.

How would it stand up to this?

Carrying the extra weight compounded to added initial expense and in itself creating another maintenance item to be inspected etc.

Oh yes, it'll be on every jet soon.

In Dragons den Parlance, I don't like it and for that reason - "I'm out"

[alistair®]

"In Dragons den Parlance, I don't like it and for that reason - "I'm out" :D

Two things seem a bit dubious to me: 1) a seemingly very low budget of £171,000 and the fact that it "could be available for commercial use within around 4 years." :hmm:

[Genghis the Engineer]

Interesting, I did a bit of further digging. The manager of that research, Dr. Ian Bond at Bristol University is a fairly serious player - his work mostly is in doing clever stuff with composite materials - such as predicting their life and working out how to dispose of it at the end of it's life.

What he seems to be saying in his research is that with primary composite materials it's possible to include either resin or dye within hollow fibres so that if the structure gets damaged it may be possible to either (using the resin) have it self repaired or (using the dye) have it leach colour which indicates BVID (Barely Visible Impact Damage).

Presumably this is a fairly small change to existing composite material processes, hence the proposed 4 years to service - although I'd guess that's probably really "4 years to putting some small non-critical panels on an aeroplane and seeing how it works for a few years" - which would certainly be worth trying to see how it works.

Department of Aerospace Engineering : Multifunctional Fibre Composites: Self-repair (http://www.aer.bris.ac.uk/research/fibres/sr.html) is worth a look for some rather more informative words and pictures.

G

[Genghis the Engineer]

localised heat damage/csorching from ECS packs/leaks!

I love the way inventors/dsigners think aircraft operate "as it says on the tin". Have a look in the panels of a 15 year service (well looked after) ailiner and see the scars of leaks spills, tooling damage etc that naturally occur.

How would it stand up to this?

Carrying the extra weight compounded to added initial expense and in itself creating another maintenance item to be inspected etc.

Oh yes, it'll be on every jet soon.

In Dragons den Parlance, I don't like it and for that reason - "I'm out"

All very valid points - but I can't help feel that there are still benefits in letting a researcher like that have a play - he might just come up with something worth having. Sometimes the daft ideas (like aeroplanes without propellers - that really was barking mad - once) go somewhere useful and the track record of predicting in advance what'll work isn't all that good.

Incidentally, looking at Alistair's journal - the contents from the first issue in 1929 (http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContainer.do;jsessionid=E2DD9430D47B3E26469F9FC66CD66709 ?containerType=Issue&containerId=6005311) is fascinating...

Technical Progress—1928: Review of Years' Work shows Great Britain in Favourable Position with Regard to Development

G

[Rigga]

Ghenghis is right (again, probably) Research has to start somewhere and this is well on from any theory.
My observation(s) to the paper would be that the repair strength of 80-90% is not enough (yet) and a method of mapping the "repairs" should be found in order to monitor what might happen should a string of repairs line up!

As I see it - the technology is already 95% out there (and has been for about 15 years) for a "plastic" aircraft with multiple-pathed Fly-by-Light cables embedded into its fabric to control piezo-electric driven control surfaces. Should one FBL 'path' become defective another 'spare' path could be utilised until repair or replacement of the original.

All we need now is some brave company to do something evolutionary!

Unfortunately, suitable future engine technology seems to be dragging behind the rest, but again, I'm sure it will eventually come to fruition!

Remember. "If things don't change, they'll stay the same!"