Advanced Aircraft Material

Vivek Kumar Prince

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehra Dun, India E-mail : vkprinceupes@gmail.com

Abstract There has been long debate on advanced aircraft material from past decades & researchers too came out with lots of new advanced material like composites and different aluminum alloys. Now days a new advancement that is in great talk is third generation Aluminum-lithium alloy. Newest Aluminum-lithium alloys are found out to have low density, higher elastic modulus, greater stiffness, greater cryogenic toughness, high resistance to fatigue cracking and improved corrosion resistance properties over the earlier used aircraft material as mentioned in Table 3 [1-5]. Comparison had been made with nowadays used composite material and is found out to be more superior then that. Keywords cryogenic toughness, corrosion resistance, damage tolerance, curing, stiffness.

cold work to attain peak properties, and accelerated fatigue crack extension rates when cracks are micro structurally small. Why there always a need of an Advanced Material? It had been always a genuine question why there is a need of advanced material if we have particular material in use. The answer lies in the performance, cost, safety, durability & growing environmental concern. As we know that a light material will consume less fuel we are concern with high strength material so that there will be fuel reduction and operating cost. With growing concern over climate change and focus on reducing fuel burn and emission intensifying, the importance of these material characteristic has never been greater [6]. There are many way to reduce fuel burn and emission, one is developing material with enhanced temperature capability that will improve the engine thermal efficiency, reducing fuel burn and emission. Table 1.give us a clear picture how the development in Al-Li Alloys from early 1930s (First generation) take their root till to 2012(Third generation). Different Generation of Aluminum based Alloys:Alloy 2014 2024 2090 2195 Chemical composition (wt %) Al-4.4 Cu-0.7 Mg-0.7 Si-0.6Mn Al-4.4 Cu-1.5 Mg0.6Mn Al-2.7 Cu-2.2 Li-0.1Zr Al-4.0 Cu-1.0 Li-0.4 Ag-0.5 Mg-0.12Zr Al-6.3 Cu-0.3 Mn-0.18 Properties comment Medium strength Damage tolerant High strength Al-Li alloy Wieldable ,AlLi alloy; low temperature Weld able; low

I.

INTRODUCTION

The main objective of the advance material is to create a valuable product by improving performance, reducing ownership costs, extending system life and reducing environment impact [6]. Improvement in manufacturing technology and suitable material selection play an important role in improving performance and reducing costs for any product, keeping in mind the challenging performance and affordability goal of next generation aircraft, manufacturers came out with a new advanced material considered as third generation Al-Li alloy that achieve significant weight and cost reduction as shown in Table 1. [7] .Al-Li seems to be most competitive or superior to a composite based design in an aircraft. Various trade off had been made between Al-Li alloys and composites and it seems out that new alloys is more superior. Below different trade off comparison have been shown between Al-Li Alloys and composites which not only shows the superiority of Al-Li alloys over composites but also provide us a clear evidence of their usefulness as an advanced future material for aerospace industry over the costly composites materials. The major disadvantages of peak-strength aluminum-lithium alloys are reduced ductility and fracture toughness in the short transverse direction, anisotropy of in-plane properties, the need for

ISSN : 2319 3182, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013

66

International Journal on Theoretical and Applied Research in Mechanical Engineering (IJTARME)

2219

Zr-0.1 V-0.06Ti Al-2.3 Cu-1.6 Mg-1.1 Ni-1.1 Fe-0.2 Si-0.1Ti Al-1 Mg-0.8 Si-0.8 Cu0.5Mn Al-6.3 Zn-2.5 Mg-1.8 Cu-0.13Zr Al-6.2 Zn-2.2 Mg-2.3 Cu-0.12Zr Al-8.1 Zn-2.3 Cu2.05Mg Al-5.7 Zn-2.3 Mg-1.5 Cu-0.2Cr Al-8.5 Fe-2.4 Si-1.3V Al-8 Fe-4Ce Al-2.4 Li-1.3 Cu-0.9 Mg-0.1Zr

2618 6013 7010 7050 7055 7075 8009 8019 8090

& elevated temperature Elevated temperature Corrosion resistant High strength High strength High strength High strength, tough Elevated temperature Elevated temperature Damage tolerant of AlLi alloy

Alloy 2090 2091 8090 Weldalite 049

Cu 2.70 2.28 1.44 4.83

Li 2.40 2.12 2.50 1.17

Zr 0.12 0.12 0.15 0.14

Mg 0.25 1.16 1.18 0.37 0.42Ag

Table 2 : Composition of Aluminum-lithium Alloys (wt. %) [11]

Alloy Density 3 (g/cm ) Ductility ( El % ) Elastic Modulus (GPa) Tensile Strength (MPa) Longitudinal Klc (MPa m1/2) Melting Temperature o ( C)

2090 2091 8090 Weldal ite 049

2.59 2.56 2.55 2.60

3-6 6 4-5 10

76 75 77 76

500 550 480 700

44 >130 75 30

580-660 560-670 600-655 600-650

Table1. Aerospace Aluminum Alloys [7] Comparison of Al-Li alloy with Composites Do not require large capital investments, hence more cost effective than composites in same application [8]. High damage tolerance than composite material. On strike composite material incur internal damage rather than outside of the airframe .So we require non destructive testing to determine the damage, so that we go for repair process to ensure structural integrity of the airframe .While Al-Li structure damage can be easily determined similar as with traditional Al structure and straight forward repair can be done as necessary. Further it has been found out that even composite can be made damage tolerant by adding ply on composite but it would virtually eliminate the weight advantages of composite material.[8] Easy manufacturing processes required in case of Al-Li alloy than in composite, which require a special manufacturing processes called curing done either in ovens or autoclaves. Al-Li alloys utilize the same manufacturing processes as aluminum. Fully recyclable as compared to composite material which contains carbon fiber and metallic mesh which is difficult to extract from the material making them practically non-recyclable.[9]

Table 3 : Mechanical properties of third generation AlLi alloy [11, 12] Alloy 2090 is a replacement for 7056-T6 that offers 8% lower density and 10% higher stiffness than conventional alloy [11]. 2090 alloy also offers much better corrosion resistance in salt based environment than 7075-T6. Alloy 2091 is a replacement for 2024-T3 that offers 8% lower density and 7% higher elastic modulus. 2091 alloy has superior damage tolerance as well [11]. Alloy 8090 is a replacement for 2014 & 2024 that offers 10% lower density and 11% higher elastic modulus than conventional alloy [9,11].8090 alloy is supposed to have superior mechanical properties at cryogenic temperature. Weldalite is a replacement for 2219& 2014 that offers 5% higher modulus and tensile strength. It is used in wielding application in sheet, plate, forging and extrusions as a replacement over 2219.While it replaces 2014 which is used in space launch vehicles.

ISSN : 2319 3182, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013

67

International Journal on Theoretical and Applied Research in Mechanical Engineering (IJTARME)

Present and materials:

Future

Applications

of

Advanced

III. SUMMARY Advanced materials play a vital role in reducing the environmental impact of aviation. Materials having light weight i.e. high strength to weight ratio, have improved temperature capability or are more adaptive, and hence can help to reduce fuel burn and emissions [6]. These materials are found to be cost effective as there will be less initial investment in establishing Al-Li Manufacturing industry as compared to composites. So developing material with these enhanced properties will satisfy our customer as far as cost effectiveness is concern as well as it will help in reducing environmental related aviation concern as well . Improved strength will not only reduce fuel burn but increase the performance of an aircraft to a greater extent. IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Al-Li alloys found uses in cryogenic tanker of space shuttle booster i.e. liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel tanks for aerospace vehicles [8, 11]. Various aircraft parts such as wing skins, access covers, leading and trailing edges and seat tracks uses Al-Li alloys on particular [12]. Many military aircraft part such as wing box, control surfaces, fuselage central part are nowadays using Al-Li alloy in a large scale. Basically Al-Li alloys found more application in helicopters, satellites and rockets as substitute for conventional Al Alloys [12]. Manufacturers are trying their way hard to make use of this material for whole aircraft fuselage, they too came out with Narrow Body Aircraft made mostly of these advanced material. Development is made in regard to find out application of these advanced materials in engine covering as they can re sustain high temp without damage. Manufactures are using this material for Horizontal and Vertical stabilizers of small commercial aircraft for their light weight. The possible aerospace applications for nanotechnology include enhanced Structures, modified surfaces and coatings, new sensor and manufacturing technologies. The development in advanced aircraft material is not limited to aircraft industry but they are finding their new way to automotive industry as well i.e. this advanced material for aircraft will be used for automobile for enhancing durability and cost effectiveness [10]. II. FUTURE MATERIAL

I would like to acknowledge my greatest thanks to my elder brother for his day to day power booster that not only motivated me to go ahead but also helped me to realize my own potential. My greatest thank to the Department of Aerospace Engineering (UPES) for their sincere effort to provide me the best possible help that they could have. At Last I, would like to thanks my parents to provide me the best love & care at my early stage that not only help me to be a successful person but reminded me my own job to keep their head always upper. V. REFERENCES [1]
Ai, Suohua Wang, Zhongguang, Zhang, Yun Influence of ageing on low cycle fatigue behavior in 8090 Al-Li Alloy. A. Geber*, N.Afify -Characterization of the precipitates in AlLi (8090) alloy using Thermal Measurements and TEM examinations. James C. Williams, Edgar A. Starke, Jr.Progress in Structural materials for aerospace Systems. F.Wei, Z. K. Zhao, P. Y. Liu. T. T. Zhou Research and Development of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu-Li Alloys. N. Eswara Prasad, A.A Gokhale, P. Rama Rao Mechanical behavior of Aluminum Lithium alloys. SBAC Aviation and Environment Briefing PapersAdvanced Aircraft Materials. E. A. Strake, Jr. and J. T. Staley Application of modern aluminum alloys to aircraft. Roy Crooks Study of the Fracture Mechanism of a High-Strength, Light-Weight Alloy. Cindie Giummarra1, Bruce Thomas2 and Roberto J. Rioja1-New Aluminum Lithium Alloys for Aerospace Applications.

[2]

[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Researchers are still busy in finding out highly advanced future material so that they can ease for all the above concern whether it is about performance, cost or Aviation concern on environment. So, they are working too hard to develop Nanomatellic systems [6]. These nanomatellic systems contain metallic materials such as aluminum or nickel alloys nanosized grain or phases, which could potentially be used in various airframe and engine applications?

ISSN : 2319 3182, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013

68

International Journal on Theoretical and Applied Research in Mechanical Engineering (IJTARME) [10] [11] J. Staley, D. Lege Advance in aluminum alloy products for structural application in transportation MEE433B- Aluminum Lithium Alloys. [12] Joshi, A. Lithium Aluminum Alloys The New Generation of Aerospace Alloys.

ISSN : 2319 3182, Volume-2, Issue-1, 2013

69