Manufacturing and reinforcement technologies for the next generation aircraft rear end: part 2
Creators: name: Haase, Thomas
name: Kolbe, Andreas
name: Nguyen, Duy Chinh
name: Toso, Yves
name: Adam, Till Julian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: thermoplastic, manufacturing, light strike protection, impact, ballistic fiber, zylon

description: Nowadays, the decarbonization of civil aviation is the major challenge for the aviation industry. Besides<br> the use of alternative green fuels being significantly more expensive, also every aircraft component has to<br> be optimized such that the fuel consumption of the aircraft achieves a minimum. All these efforts have to<br> consider that the European aviation industry have to sell aircrafts at a reasonable price compared to their<br> competitors.<br> In the European research program “Large Passenger Aircraft” as part of the Clean Sky 2 initiative, an<br> advanced rear-end concept is investigated. The advanced rear-end project aiming for a forward swept tail<br> configuration which has several aerodynamic and configurational benefits. At the same time it is<br> developing low-cost and optimal lightweight manufacturing technologies to ensure the competitiveness of<br> future aircraft.<br> The German aerospace center (DLR) supports the investigations towards a future rear end with two<br> research streams:<br> 1.) Simulation tools for the design of lightweight and cost efficient reinforcements required at the<br> aircraft rear end and<br> 2.) Thermoplastic manufacturing technologies for complex and double curved rear end structures.<br> In this presentation, the on-going work since the last DLRK presentation in 2019 is presented. During the<br> last two years, a third high velocity impact test campaign with a ballistic material is conducted. It is shown<br> that the Zylon material has superior impact resistance compared to the formerly tested aluminum and<br> carbon materials. Besides the safety relevant impact studies, a damage assessment simulation tool chain<br> is developed which will support lightweight compliant design of carbon fiber reinforced plastics. This<br> toolchain will furthermore be applied for the maintenance process of future aircraft.<br> Additionally, the manufacturing technology development for thermoplastic material is presented. DLR<br> investigates a Xenon flash lamp heating source to lay up low melt PAEK material. This heating method is<br> an alternative to laser heating and is currently under investigation with respect to lay up speeds, critical<br> curvature, ramps and laminate thickness which are present at the rear-end. Furthermore, the automated<br> lay up of a lightning strike protection (LSP) layer is investigated. Therefore, a LSP material is developed<br> that is processable with a automated fiber placement head on a robot. Also, different designs for the<br> lightning strike layer are studied which offer a weight saving potential compared to the state of the art.<br> In the next project period, the developed impact simulation tools will feed the virtual demonstration of the<br> advanced rear-end enabling the forward shift of the auxiliary power unit. Furthermore, a full-scale part of<br> the rear-end lower shell including all the aforementioned challenges will be manufactured with the<br> thermoplastic technologies.<br>