Theme

Structural Integrity: Influence of Efficiency and Green Imperatives

Background

Two related imperatives are influencing the design of aeronautical structures:

1. the requirement for more efficient aircraft (reduction of life cycle costs, particularly operating costs) and
2. the requirement to reduce the environmental footprint, including noise, of aircraft.

To meet these imperatives, the aerospace industry must reduce its manufacturing and operating costs while at the same time, introduce new technologies, new material applications and new design and certification processes. This includes issues such as a greater use of advanced lightweight materials in primary structure, introduction of techniques and concepts for increased utilization of environmentally sustainable materials, elimination of toxic chemicals and materials and reduction of waste in manufacturing and maintenance processes, life extension processes, and advanced systems design, use of modeling and simulation in lieu of test and a move from hydraulic to all electric aircraft system design.

Structural integrity must be maintained and even improved in this challenging environment. Current methods of design and certification need to be modified to address issues such as application of materials in non-traditional areas (e.g. composites in fuselage), hybrid structures, certification by analysis, and design and test spectra considering cyclic and time effects. Material selection will be influenced by factors other than just their structural performance. Life extension and repair of aging aircraft will also be affected. The theme of this symposium is to address the influence of the life cycle cost and green imperatives from a structural integrity viewpoint of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.