Manufacturing and Characterization of Fiber Reinforced Polyamide Composites for Aerospace Applications

Abstract

The utility of thermoplastic composites has evolved over the past years in the aerospace industry and discovering the abilities behind fiber reinforced composites became essential. In this study, the capability of fiber reinforcement is evaluated through the fabrication of Glass fiber reinforced polyarylamide and Carbon fiber reinforced polyarylamide by compression molding. In order to examine the thermal and mechanical properties of all manufactured composites, several tests were conducted. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was performed on the polymer matrix (PA MXD6) to analyze the crystallinity and thermal transitions. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) was conducted on all materials including the produced composites to study the thermal stability of samplesin high temperatures and monitor the degradation by analyzing the weight change. As for Dynamic Mechanical analysis (DMA), both the glass transition temperature and storage modulus were observed to interpret the effect of fiber reinforcement. To investigate the mechanical properties of all three materials, flexural tests were conducted according to ASTM standards to compare the flexural strength and modulus of polymer matrix and manufactured composites. The flexural analysis denotes that the flexural strength of CFRPA MXD6 is 802% higher than PA MXD6 and GFRPA MXD6 exhibits an increase of 432% in comparison with the flexural strength of the polymer matrix. The results obtained in this research proves that thermoplastic composites are great alternatives and hold a bright future in aircraft production.

Date of Award	May 2021
Original language	American English