High fibre

A fibre-metal laminate currently  under development could herald an era of ‘intelligent’ aircraft structures that need fewer mechanical systems, according to a UK engineering team.

Researchers at Liverpool University are combining two technologies — fibre composites and shape-memory alloys — that could lead to extremely lightweight and responsive aircraft with built-in self-diagnostics and a ‘morphing’ capability.

Prof Wesley Cantwell, from the university’s engineering department, claimed the work could represent a major breakthrough for the aerospace industry. ‘This would be the first material of its kind in the world,’ he said. ‘Up until now there has been a fair bit of work in combining fibre-composites with other metals such as aluminium, titanium and even magnesium alloys, but it has never been done with shape-memory alloys before.’

Fibre-metal laminates are hybrid structures based on thin sheets of metal alloy and layers of fibre-reinforced polymer materials. According to Cantwell, they offer superior structural properties over conventional aerospace materials, including improved impact resistance and a fatigue life up to 100 times better than aerospacegrade aluminium alloy. For this reason, a fibre-metal laminate is the main structural material in the upper fuselage of the Airbus A380.