Analysis of fibre metal laminate based on carbon fibre hybrid composites for aero-engine applications

Due to the problems of flammability, weight and health risk associated with the materials in fire designated zone of an aircraft engine, there is a need to develop new composites that will resolve the fire issues. Accordingly, two classes of composites, the fibre metal laminates and the aluminium alloy coated with silica aerogel composites are examined in this research. The fibre metal laminate composites use synthetic fibre (carbon) and natural fibres (kenaf and flax) were tested with metal alloy. The study present a novelty in hybridising the synthetic and natural fibre and also using an aerogel to coat the aluminium alloy in fire designated zone of an aircraft engine. In order to ensure the validity of such composites, the fire resistance, mechanical, thermal, and impact velocity properties of the composites were experimentally investigated in this research. The main aim of the study is to investigate the load/fire operational performance of the fabricated composites for the fire designated zone of an aircraft engine at some high-temperature for future use in aerospace industries. The composites’ different layers, stacking sequence, and materials with the same thickness were fabricated in a mould using the hand lay-up method, compressed with a compression machine, cured within 24 hours at room temperature and post-cured for three hours in an oven at 80⁰C. The burn-through fire test was carried out using a propane-air burner conforming to the ISO2685 standard. The mechanical test carried out on the composite was based on the ASTM standard of the properties that involves the use of a 100 kN load cell of Universal Testing Machine (UTM). A gun tunnel system placed 14 inches away from the target was used for the impact velocity test, followed by a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and a dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) as the thermal test. The results obtained indicate that the composites have high values of all properties as compared with the existing literature as in glass reinforced aluminium laminate with a tensile modulus of about 3.7 GPa, a compressive modulus of 0.56 GPa and a flexural modulus of 0.5 GPa. The TGA thermal test shows 58.85% as the highest residue percentage of the composite under test and an increase of storage modulus in the DMA result. Impactwise, the composites show a remarkable improvement with high impact strength and absorb energy with highest values of 9.25 kJ/m2 and 81.02 J respectively. In the fire test, the composites can withstand high flame temperature and heat flux according to the ISO2685 standard. The results of all the tests show a remarkable improvement in all the properties with almost 10-14% of fire behaviour, mechanical, and thermal as compared with glass reinforced aluminium laminate (GLARE) of the various fibre metal laminates and aluminium alloy composites coated with different types of silica aerogel. Conclusively, the study revealed that both composites have excellent mechanical, thermal, impact velocity and fire resistance properties that can be applied as components in the fire designated zone of an aircraft engine.

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