Composite fuselage
 

This might be one for the more technically able amongst the group;

I was having a discussion with my father, who’s completely non aviation interested, about the A380 and “new plastic Boeing” 787 regarding whether they were safe to fly on.

He’s a bit of a luddite so wasn’t too pushed to be a passenger in either. The 380 argument was about “so many people in one place”, but the point he made about the 787 was interesting … new technology in the fuselage design and he started to ramble on about it being the next Comet. This last comment got me thinking …

So, my question to all out there is this, how much do we know about using composites in large pressure vessels? Particularly where we then punch holes in the structure and subject it to external forces (aerodynamic and normal aircraft fatigue strains)?

Appreciate any comments and insights.

JAS

With regards to flight cycle stresses, No idea. I can only imagine that the kevelar reinforced composites are stronger than aluminium, and less prone to stress fractures, after the same number of flight cycles as an aluminium hull of similar size and loading. However Lightning and composites do not go together, or at least they did'nt. I'm sure thats now a hurdle that has been overcome.

Hello.

From the fatigue standpoint it is a different manner, that statement is correct. However it is not a new concept since either composite elements or the whole (pressurized) fuselages have been already introduced, not of that size of course (see Raytheon, formerly Hawker).

As for the details for the 787 bigger problem is on the manufacturing side and with some aspects of repair.

Airbus team, or better to say, guys in German based DLR (an R&D institution responsible for testing and developing new CFRP fuse for the next AB narrow body) think that repairs on CFRP fuse, the way Boeing wants to do them, do not work.:rolleyes:

Well, as long as they do not come out with something like an Airbus CFRP fuse it is highly theorethical comment, at least form my standpoint:E

Sadly, Boeing does not allow any discussion on that topic:= so you need either to wait and see how it behaves or do a little digging through Google (better through its section on scientific publications called Google Scholar ).

Composites structure per se is analyzed in a different matter and I do not see this forum big enough to support detail discussion.:sad:

Cheers

experiment : try bending a composite fishing rod, then try bending an aluminium rod of similar size!:E