Air travel has become increasingly popular, becoming the preferred and most efficient method of travel throughout the years. With air travel projected to double within the next 20 years, more people than ever will be utilizing this form of travel. However, an increased demand requires an equivalent increase of security and safety. Many individuals have pondered this concept in an effort to better understand the corrective action in store following two deadly crashes that killed over 300 people. Are the airlines and aerospace manufacturers able to ensure a specific safety standard across all aircraft models and is this enough to reassure the public? Boeing, one of the industry’s leaders in aerospace manufacturing, found itself at the forefront of this movement for safety after the tragic system failures of its aircraft, the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
This report has been curated in an effort to highlight the injustices and oversights that have occurred throughout the course of the Boeing Crisis. These have formed during the early stages of designing, manufacturing, and integration process of the Boeing 737 MAX 8. The coverage and investigation that this crisis received was not cumulative of all factors that contributed to the failure of the aircraft to perform as designed while in flight. With many official reports from Boeing and the FAA being insufficient in both scope and detail of the crashes, this report will highlight the integral details that should play a larger role in the future manufacturing processes of aircrafts.

In this conference paper, nanoscale material property data and ASTM mode I interlaminar fracture results for three-phase buckypaper samples are presented and analyzed. Vacuum filtration and surfactant-free methods were used to manufacture buckypaper membranes. Epoxy infused buckypaper membranes were placed in front of the crack tip in a stitch bonded carbon fiber polymer matrix composite using a hand layup technique. Peak Force Quantitative Nanomechanical Mapping (PFQNM), using probes with nominal tip radius in the range of 5 to 8 nm were used. PFQNM fully characterized the interphase region between a three-phase sample of carbon monofilament, epoxy resin, and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) buckypaper. This experiment captured reproducible nanoscale morphological, viscoelastic, elastic and energy properties of porous MWCNT buckypaper samples. An enlarged interphase region surrounding the CNT buckypaper was found. The buckypaper and epoxy interphase thickness was found to be 50nm, higher than the 10-40nm reported for epoxy and carbon monofilaments. The observed MWCNT structure provides explanation of the increased surface roughness compared to the smooth carbon monofilaments. The increased surface roughness likely improves mechanical interlocking with the epoxy of adjacent lamina. The interphase and subsurface characterization data at the nanoscale level provide explanation for a change in crack propagation toughness. Nanoscale analysis of the buckypaper surface proved the inhomogeneous properties even at the scale of a few square micrometer. The improvement in crack initiation and propagation energy is due to mechanical interlocking, crack path diversion, and the large interphase zone surrounding the buckypaper.

Essential knowledge of Co-continuous composite material properties are explored in this thesis. Mechanical characterization of these materials gives a detailed outlook to use them in design, manufacture and tailor make the products.

Soft and hard polymer materials have extensive properties individually, but when combined to make a single structure, they give an exceptional combination of properties. In this study, Polymer materials used are in the form of Co-Continuous structures (i.e., both soft and hard polymers are continuous throughout the microstructure) fabricated into several microstructures namely, Simple Cubic (SC), Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) and Face Centered Cubic (FCC) shapes. An experimental process is designed and fine-tuned from existing methods to understand and record the mechanical response of these co-continuous polymers. Experimental testing is used to gather detailed information about several constituencies namely stress behavior and damage progression. A 3D imaging technique, Microtomography is used to visualize damage initiation and progression in the sample. Variations in energy absorption, fracture initiation and damage propagation in samples are observed and correlated analysis is performed to provide a logical explanation. Comparative studies are performed as well for different structures.

Based on the Knowledge gained from the above study on co-continuous polymer composites, several conclusions are drawn, and future work directions are suggested.

This paper describes the development of a software tool used to automate the preliminary design of aircraft wing structure. By taking wing planform and aircraft weight as inputs, the tool is able to predict loads that will be experienced by the wing. An iterative process is then used to select optimal material thicknesses for each section of the design to minimize total structural weight. The load analysis checks for tensile failure as well as Euler buckling when considering if a given wing structure is valid. After running a variety of test cases with the tool it was found that wing structure of small-scale aircraft is predominantly buckling driven. This is problematic because commonly used weight estimation equations are based on large scale aircraft with strength driven wing designs. Thus, if these equations are applied to smaller aircraft, resulting weight estimates are often much lower than reality. The use of a physics-based approach to preliminary sizing could greatly improve the accuracy of weight predictions and accelerate the design process.

This experiment analyzed the degradation mechanisms in polymer matrix composite (PMC) samples after more than 50 years of simulated exposure to hygrothermal conditioning. This strong, form-adaptive, lightweight material is suitable for use on critical structures including nuclear powerplants and spacecrafts as primary reinforcers to improve fracture toughness. Current literature regarding PMC material has a poor understanding of its delamination trends and varying interphase properties that determine its overall reliability under extreme weather conditions. This paper will evaluate the long-term impact from exposure to heat and humidity regarding the material’s stiffness and degradation to confirm PMC’s reliability for use in structures that undergo these conditions. To study this phenomenon, aged and unaged PMC samples were analyzed on the nanoscale using PeakForce Quantitative Nanomechanical mode (PF-QNM) of Atomic Force Microscopy with an indentation tip no greater than 10nm in radius. This paper compares this testing method to the results from recent research on other microscopy modes to discuss the validity of the PF-QNM model as it is used for this analysis. The data obtained allowed for analysis of crack propagation and quantification of strength in interphase between the composite’s constituents. This research verifies the testing method for which a comprehensive understanding of the environmental influences on PMC mechanical properties could be achieved.

The project consists of steps that a Formula SAE team could take into developing their first carbon fiber monocoque chassis. The project is based on an interview with a successful team that has build carbon monocoques for the last several years. The project covers the steps into designing a carbon monocoque, including aspects that need to be highlighted in the design process as well as an outline of the overall rules and regulations regarding carbon fiber monocoques. The project also encompasses simple finite element analysis procedure that would introduce teams into carbon fiber composite sandwich analysis and its applications in racecar monocoques. The project also includes steps in manufacturing a carbon fiber monocoque beginning from methods to acquire necessary materials to the final process of de-molding the monocoque. The method has been used before from several FSAE teams, proving its viability. The goal is that through this report, teams could have an idea of where to start in developing their carbon monocoques and have a clear path to take on going from initial designs up until a final finished product.

Carbon emissions have become a major concern since the turn of the century. This has increased the demand of hybrid vehicles in United States market. Hence, there is a need to make these vehicles more efficient. This thesis focuses on creating a thermal model that could be used for optimization of these vehicles. The project was accomplished in collaboration with EcoCar3, and the temperature data obtained from the model was compared with the experimental temperature data gathered from EcoCar's testing of the vehicle they built. The data obtained through this study demonstrates that the model was accurately able to predict thermal behavior of the electric motor and the high-voltage batteries in the vehicle. Therefore, this model could be used for optimization of the powertrain in a hybrid vehicle.

This study analyzes mechanical properties of additively manufactured plastic materials produced in a conventional 3D printer. This topic has generally been studied in controlled scenarios, and this study aims to reflect the properties seen by consumers. Layered prints are inherently anisotropic due to the direction of the layers and associated weaknesses or stress concentrators. Thus, the ultimate strength and elastic modulus of plastic specimens produced using default settings are compared based on print orientation angle, and trends are observed. When a specimen is parallel to the build plate, it tends to have ultimate strength and elastic modulus near the published bulk values of 13.2MPa and 404-710MPa, but these values tend to decrease as the print angle increases.

In today’s day and age, the use of automated technology is becoming increasingly prevalent. Throughout the aerospace industry, we see the use of automated systems in manufacturing, testing, and, progressively, in design. This thesis focuses on the idea of automated structural design that can be directly coupled with parametric Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) and used to support aircraft conceptual design. This idea has been around for many years; however, with the advancement of CAD technology, it is becoming more realistic. Having the ability to input design parameters, analyze the structure, and produce a basic CAD model not only saves time in the design process but provides an excellent platform to communicate ideas. The user has the ability to change parameters and quickly determine the effect on the structure. Coupling this idea with automated parametric CAD provides visual verification and a platform to export into Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for further verification.