Manufacturing an airplane wing or fuselage is expensive, requiring materials, time, and energy to produce. So when one is flawed, it can exact a high cost. By knowing the causes of structural failures in these materials, researchers can better determine how to modify the manufacturing process to eliminate weaknesses. Composites are put into service in flight vehicles, automobiles, boats, pipelines, buildings, roads, bridges, and dozens of other products. A composite is made from two or more dissimilar materials that are mixed to make a new material with combined qualities of the original materials.
Specific jobs require that composites be manufactured with certain desirable properties.
For example, stiffer fibers are mixed with a more flexible epoxy matrix to become one entity having both attributes that will perform properly in the field as a structural composite part. In addition to experimenting with manufacturing processes or curing processes, researchers are finding ways to improve other qualities of composites so they may be strong, lightweight, long-lived, and inexpensive to produce. Successfully manufacturing a composite requires the correct combination of temperature, pressure, and curing time. To find the best process for each specific material and service condition, several curing processes are tried and the resultant material tested. The thermosetting process being simulated by Ahmad's group binds the fibers and resins used to make a composite.