Browse Topic: Lightweight materials
Letter from the Guest Editors
In commercial aerospace, the application areas for motors are wide and varied, each with their own unique requirements. From electric vehicle take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxis to business jets to long-haul commercial transport aircraft, DC motors must endure various environmental conditions like extreme temperatures, shock and vibration, atmospheric pressures and signal interference, to name just a few. These applications may also demand motors that provide a fast response, high power or torque density. In addition to these requirements, the aerospace industry perpetually calls for lightweight materials and smaller installation spaces. Taken together, it can be very difficult to specify and buy a reliable motor for mission-critical equipment. This article will present common commercial aerospace applications that pose performance and environmental challenges for DC motors along with a summary of the stringent aerospace industry standards that the motors must satisfy. It will also
Most motor mounts, even for EV applications, are made of metal alloys. It makes intuitive sense: It's a vibration-intensive mounting application that demands durability that matches the life of the vehicle itself. But there is another way. Now, a composite nylon-based motor mount on the Cadillac Lyriq has won the Society for Automotive Analysts' Innovation in Lightweighting Award. The mount is a collaboration between GM, anti-vibration parts maker DN Automotive and chemical company Celanese. It is made with Zytel PA NVH Gen 2, a new polyamide (PA 66). The results not only showed up in development data, but in the end product, which has reviewers raving about how quiet the Lyriq's cabin is - “crypt quiet,” according to Automotive News.
Working on the nanoscale gives researchers a lot of insight and control when fabricating and characterizing materials. In larger scale manufacturing, as well as in nature, many materials have the capacity for flaws and impurities that can disrupt their complex structure. This creates several weak points that can easily break under stress. This is common with most glass, which is why it is thought of as such a delicate material.
Historically, patch antennas have been used for SmallSat communications. While new antenna technologies are in development, some are not optimized for size, mass, and performance — especially beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO). Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center identified the need for a small form factor antenna to provide high data rate communications for such missions.
In the era of rapidly increasing of EV/AVs, there are more electronic Modules/sensors & bigger battery packs added to EV (Electric Vehicles) vehicles, which has resulted in added mass penalty thereby impacting the range of EV vehicles. Range anxiety remains one of the biggest obstacles to widespread electric-car adoption, which drives the necessity of mass optimization to improve EV range. Multi-material design is a trend to lightweight automotive structures. The automotive industry is looking to make use of carbon fibers in their subsystem design. The challenge in current unidirectional carbon fiber design is difficulty to tailor stiffness/ strength across the fiber direction & orienting plies to system / vehicle load path. Optimization of ply angle for unidirectional composite provides constant fiber angle across the ply which does not address multiple load paths of all component /system. This drives for an opportunity to get the fiber angles tailor made to specific load path
This SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR5271) covers the basic attributes of a second-generation robust, reliable high-density fiber optic interconnect system for aerospace applications. The intent is to take advantage of recent commercial developments in materials, components and manufacturing methods to develop rugged high-density fiber optic interconnects optimized for aerospace and automotive applications, which can accommodate a variety of optical fiber waveguide types. These waveguide types include single mode and multi-mode glass/glass fibers and waveguides, plastic clad silica fibers and waveguides, and all polymer fibers and waveguides. This second generation interconnect system should represent a dramatic improvement over first generation. The cable should be extremely robust eliminating any concerns over cable damage or fiber breakage in an aerospace environment. A high-density fiber optic interconnect system provides the physical medium for optical data and control
Composite materials have time and again proven to be highly useful, especially in the aerospace industry with the increasing need for light-weight materials albeit with high stiffness to strength ratios. The Ceramic Particle Reinforced Composites can be effectively utilized in tuning the natural frequencies of components by varying the volume fractions up to 40% with the help of Representative Volume Element (RVE) / Unit Cell Models as explained in Reference [1]. The aim of this paper is to tune the natural frequencies of a typical blade used in a gas turbine engine by modifying the material properties without changing the design profile significantly. The design profiles of blades are arrived at after a lot of engineering iterations from aerodynamics stability point of view and are also finalized based on meeting key performance parameters. However, the structural analysis studies are carried out after the profile generation, which may sometime predict that the natural frequencies are
The transition from traditional gasoline-powered automobiles to electric vehicles has taken time. Two significant challenges of engine-powered vehicles are greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy. Working with lightweight materials has emerged as a critical area for improvement in the automotive industry in today’s world. The most efficient method for increasing power output is to reduce the weight of vehicle components. Composite materials have significantly benefited from research and development because they are stronger, more recyclable, and easier to integrate into vehicles. The primary goal of this research is to design the body and chassis frame of a two-seater electric car. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed to determine the body’s drag coefficient and structural analysis to obtain the frontal impact and torsional rigidity of the chassis to develop a practical electric car design. The design was carried out with the help of CATIA V5 software, while
Researchers have developed a lighter, yet more robust knee brace for the elderly who suffer from knee problems. Using 3D printing techniques, the team has managed to reduce the weight of a traditional exoskeleton knee brace (typically built using metal) by 30 percent, thanks to an innovative design that uses lightweight plastic and assistive springs.
This document describes the initial development, evolution, and use of reticulated polyurethane foam as an explosion suppression material in fuel tanks and dry bays. It provides historical data, design practice guidelines, references, laboratory test data, and service data gained from past experience. The products discussed in this document may be referred to as "Safety Foam," "Reticulated Polyurethane Foam," "Baffle and Inerting Material," or "Electrostatic Suppression Material." These generic terms for the products discussed in this document are not meant to imply any safety warranty. Each individual design application should be thoroughly proof tested prior to production installation.
When weight reduction is the primary goal, 3D-printed aluminum alloys are a frequent choice for aerospace and high-performance motorsports applications. Aluminum is much lighter than nickel alloys and has been particularly popular for laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) because it’s good for prototyping and easy to post-process.
Electric vehicle is the current trend in automotive industry. A light weight material at affordable cost is preferred for these types of vehicles. Composite is a suitable material for this due to their attractive strength-to-weight ratio. Even though carbon fiber reinforced composites provide very good strength and modulus its usage is limited because of their higher price. Hybrid laminates stacked with glass/carbon/kevlar fiber layer shall provide good strength at lower cost. This work focus on the flexural behaviour of glass fiber reinforced laminates stacked with carbon and kevlar fiber as outer layer. Laminates were prepared by hand lay-up method. Three-point bending test was conducted as per ASTM standard. A significant improvement in flexural modulus and bending resistance was observed for the glass/carbon-epoxy hybrid laminates when compared with the glass-epoxy laminate. The failure mechanism was also studied using optical micrographs.
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