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03 AV I AT IO N A N D T H E
09 Environment
With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reporting that up to 15 per cent of total
greenhouse gas emissions could be caused by aviation by 2050, it is important to review how the past,
current and future use of advanced materials and design could help prevent this scenario. Sir David King,
Dr Oliver Inderwildi and Chris Carey, of Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment,
discuss improvements being made to existing materials, and review the new materials that we could
soon see flying on aircraft.
Advanced aerospace
materials: past, present
and future
A material advantage?
Since Orville and Wilbur Wright first decided to power their Flyer with a consists of two or more phases on the
purpose built, cast aluminium engine to meet the specific requirements for macroscopic scale. The mechanical
power to weight ratio, new materials have been necessary to improve and performance and properties of the
advance aviation. This improvement in material properties has helped us to combined system are superior to those
travel quickly and inexpensively around the world, by improving the of the constituent materials. These
performance and operations of modern aircraft. materials were first applied on civil
With aviation expecting to join the EU a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. aircraft with the Boeing 707 in 1957,
emissions trading scheme in 2010 there Since fuel costs are the largest with approximately 20m2 of polymeric
is now an economic driver to reduce operating expense for airlines, composites in mainly tertiary roles, such
emissions in addition to the social and technologies which reduce fuel use as cabin structures.
technical pressures to reduce its have a favourable effect on the bottom Increasing use of composite materials
environmental impact. With aviation line. was limited, with only a three per cent
there are two main ways to reduce increase observed from the A300 to
emissions – by reducing the overall fuel A310. However much larger structural
burnt and increasing engine efficiency. Losing weight parts, such as the vertical stabiliser (8.3m
To reduce the amount of fuel burnt you During the pioneering period of by 7.8 m at the base), were now being
can reduce both aircraft weight and its aviation (1903-1930) the minimum fabricated entirely from carbon com-
parasitic drag (drag due to the non-lift weight possible was of utmost impor- posites. This gives a weight saving of
component i.e. the fuselage). tance due to the poor performance of more than 400kg over an aluminium
For a large turbojet aircraft a weight propulsion systems (the Wright Flyer alloy structure, resulting in approx-
reduction of 1,000kg cuts fuel use by had about 8hp). This led to the use of imately 0.5 per cent reduction in fuel
about 1.1-1.5 per cent. To improve wood covered with varnished fabric, burn per hour. Aluminium/lithium alloys,
engine efficiency, the engine has to run which had limited strength and loading first proposed in the 1950s, were also
at a higher turbine inlet temperature, capacities. Aluminium alloys became introduced to reduce the density of
with a 50°C increase relating to a 1 to the baseline for aircraft structures after components (one per cent of lithium
1.33 per cent increase in engine corrosion issues were overcome in reduces the density of aluminium alloys
efficiency, allowing less fuel to be burnt 1927. Initial advancement concentrated by three per cent). Production issues
for the same thrust output. As CO2 on the refining of aluminium alloys and initially restricted their use but they are
emissions are in a 1:1 ratio with fuel the development of new materials, now utilised in a variety of structural
burn, these reductions relate directly to such as composite systems which applications.
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03 AV I AT ION A N D T H E
09 Environment
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AV I AT IO N A N D T H E 03
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The majority of these advancements (CMC) have seen some in-flight testing carbide reinforcement and have many
have led to a vast improvement in and are approaching military use but advantages over monolithic materials.
engine efficiency by increasing the have yet to gain wide ranging accep- But they are not as tough, are more
turbine inlet temperature. Figure 3 tance by OEMs for various reasons. expensive and are difficult to machine.
overleaf shows the turbine inlet The following discussion briefly A major issue for MMCs is their
temperature of a selection of Rolls- introduces a number of materials that production and manufacturing cost and
Royce turbines and corresponding have a potential for applications in next current research is focused in this area.
material developments, where a generation aircraft. Possible applications include highly
significant proportion of the loaded surfaces such as helicopter rotor
temperature increase can be attributed Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs): blades, turbine fan blades and floor
to advanced materials. While consisting of purely ceramic supports.
constituents, CMCs utilise a ceramic
matrix with reinforcing ceramic fibres Nanocomposites: As with macro-scale
What does the future and are accepted as a composite composites, a number of matrix/-
hold? system. This creates a material with the
excellent thermal properties and with
reinforcement combinations are possible
with CMC, MMC and PMC all under
The improvement and development of
materials for aviation applications is improved mechanical properties, over- investigation. Nano-composites utilise
developing on three main fronts: the coming the limitations of monolithic the huge surface area per mass and
development of new materials; the ceramic (i.e. toughness) and displaying high length-to-width ratios of nanoscale
improvement of current material other benefits. The possible applications objects to improve material properties.
properties by refining composition and of CMCs in aviation are generally in the Current development issues include pro-
novel processing methods for new hot section of the aero engines and ducing the necessary quantity of
applications; and the application of include turbine disks, combustor linear, nanoparticles at a commercially attract-
current materials in new and novel turbine aerofoils, transition duct ive price and various production issues,
structures. convergent flags and acoustic liners. such as filler dispersion.
The use of CMCs would allow an
increase in turbine inlet temperature Shape memory metals (SSM): When
New materials from the current 1200°C to 1500°C, SSMs are heated they revert to a pre-
New materials can be defined as which would lead to a 6-8 per cent deformation shape. They usually consist
materials which have yet to be applied increase in fuel efficiency. of copper/nickel based alloys, though
in an ‘as-designed’ application in other materials can be used. The
aviation. Some of these materials, Metal matrix composites (MMCs): simplicity of SSM actuators is that they
particularly metal matrix composites These consist of an aluminium or can be used for hybrid applications such
(MMC) and ceramic matrix composites titanium matrix with oxide, nitride or as variable jet intake and morphing
Figure 2. Fuel consumption per revenue passenger mile of short and long range civil aircraft
Fuel Consumption (L/Revenue Passenger Miles)
0.35
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year of Introduction
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03 AV I AT ION A N D T H E
09 Environment
TBC
200
DS
SX
investigated for a variety of materials
0 and are at varying stages of develop-
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 ment. Some, such as fibre metal lamin-
Year of Introduction ates, have already been applied to
aviation, whilst others are still at the
laboratory stage.
Figure 3. Turbine inlet temperature for a selection of Rolls-Royce turbines with major material developments indicated.
Lattice: One area of particular interest
is lattice block, which works on either
pyramidal or tetragonal truss arrange-
ments and is produced using investment
variable geometry chevrons (Figure 4) Super-alloys: Current research in this casting. These structures weigh approx-
where traditional systems are too large area is focused on fourth generation imately 15 per cent of a solid plate of
and complex when compared with the super-alloys containing ruthenium to the same external dimensions, whilst
savings possible. improve microstructural stability and in- still exhibiting good strength and
crease high temperature creep strength. damage architecture.
Material Titanium: The main area of research Foams: Another major development in
Improvements with titanium is in improvements to the the use of aluminium alloys is the
A continuing trend in material production process to lower costs. A production of foam or cellular systems.
development is the improvement in number of development projects are These are produced by a number of
processing and production of incum- being carried out with the potential to methods such as direct foaming using
bent materials to either improve reduce the cost of final titanium gas and investment casting, but all
physical properties or to allow their products by very significant amounts, in methods produce a material containing
application in new areas and roles. the region of 30 per cent or more. a number of voids. The size, density and
structure of the void produced depends
Aluminium alloys: As the most Steels: Advances in steel alloys have on a number of variables, and partic-
common of aviation materials, it is concentrated on improvements in ultra- ularly the production method. The
unsurprising that a large number of high strength and toughness. The Smith School of Enterprise and the
developments are in the pipeline for AerMet family of alloys are a significant Environment believes that foam
aluminium alloys. These include further development in this area, with similar structures will replace honeycomb
refinement of current alloys to improve specific strengths (UTS/density) to structures and could lead to higher
specific strength and corrosion resis- common Ti alloys, but with a vastly performance at reduced cost. The use
tance, as well as developing alloys for improved ductility and much higher of low density super-alloy foam in noise
specific manufacturing processes such yield strength. Applications are in safety abatement applications, replacing
as friction stir welding and laser critical structures, such as transmission acoustic liners, would allow for an
welding. These advancements will gears and parts which require the increase in engine burn efficiency, again
continue the trend for much larger structural efficiency that steel can offer. reducing fuel burn and emissions.
numbers of alloys in aircraft (the A380F
has three planed alloys for wing panels) Ceramics: Ceramics exhibit superior Laminate structures: A number of
leading to lighter structures with thermal properties and major progress laminate systems are under investig-
location specific properties. has been achieved in improving the ation with a variety of constituents. The
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What now?
All these developments have created
one of two things, either a lighter
overall weight for parts of the same
properties, in the case of structural
materials, or a higher thermodynamic
efficiency of the engine with higher
temperatures within the engine. If we
consider the latest aircraft to be
launched, the A380, a single kilogram
of weight saved equates to a 50ml
reduction in fuel burn per hour. This
might not sound much, but assuming
a 75,000 hour life of the aircraft,
it equates to 3,750 litres of fuel. The
hypothetical replacement of steel
within the A380 (approximately
11,500kg) with titanium alloy would
reduce the overall weight by 5,750kg,
saving 288 litres of fuel per hour (22
million litres over the life time) equating
to a two per cent drop in fuel burn and
emissions.
With turbine material improve-
ments, an increase in turbine inlet
temperature from the current 1,200°C
to 1,500°C would lead to a 6-8 per
cent increase in fuel burn efficiency,
equating to a 588 million litre reduction
in fuel use over the life of the aircraft. “The use of low density super-alloy
This is the equivalent of approximately
300 A380s filled with fuel. And with foam in noise abatement
Jet-A1 prices exceeding $1.10/L last applications, replacing acoustic
year, these developments offer sig-
liners, would allow for an increase
nificant economic, as well as environ-
mental, benefits in the operation of in engine burn efficiency, again
airliners – even when the economic and reducing fuel burn and emissions.
environmental cost of producing
advanced materials is taken into
account, as discussed in the last issue
”
of Aviation and the Environment.
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