APTE 5201: Fiberglass Composite Materials in Aviation Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of fiberglass composite materials within the aviation industry. It begins by introducing fiberglass, highlighting its advantages such as weight reduction, strength, and corrosion resistance, which are crucial for aircraft design. The report delves into the composition of fiberglass, explaining how it is made from glass fibers and other materials like silica sand, limestone, and soda ash. It then details the manufacturing processes involved, including batching, melting, fiber formation, coating, and packaging. The report also discusses the applications of fiberglass in various aircraft components, from the aircraft body to interior elements like chairs and overhead bins. Furthermore, it compares fiberglass with alternative materials like aluminum, considering factors such as cost, maintenance, and impact resistance, and it concludes by referencing the materials used and their sources.

ENGINEERING DESIGN
COMPOSITE MATERIALS IN ENGINEERING

Introduction
• In the aviation industry, the commonly used composites materials are
used to overcome obstacles and create the lightweight nature that
reduces the fuel consumption in aircraft.
• The most commonly used composite material here is the fibre glass
material.
• This material was widely used for manufacturing of boats and vehicles
in 1950s.

• Fibre glass is said to have numerous advantages, that is why is it
continuously used in the aviation industry,
• The advantages ranges from safety to weight reduction from
corrosion difficulty to strength etc(Composites lab, 2019).
• The fact that they do not easily break, makes it difficult to sense any
breakage or any damage in the interior structure and that might cause
accidents.

Constituents of Fibre Glass
• Fibreglass originates from a collection of products that are made from
glass fibres that still are combined into different forms.
• The silica sand applied in the formation of fibreglass is used to form
the glass, and limestone and soda ash helps is lowering the
temperature hence the lowered melting point.

Processing of Glass Fibre Process
• There are five processes involved in the formation or manufacturing of
fibre glasses, they involve:
• Batching
• Melting,
• Fibre formation
• Coating
• Drying and packaging

1st Step, Batching
• The commercial glass fibre can be made singly from silica.
• The other ingredients are added for temperature reduction and
improve the quality of the final product, by adding other properties
on the final product.
• These extra materials also must be weighed carefully so that their
exact weight is known, then mixed thoroughly, that is batching.

2nd Step, Melting
• From the area where blending takes place, the mixed ingredients are
taken to another area using the pneumatic conveyor.
• At this point, they are subjected to a temperature of 1400OC heated by
fire caused by natural gas for them to melt.
• The furnace has three sections, the first section is where the batch
enters through.

3rdStep, Glass Fibre Formation
• The formation of glass fibre is where the extruded glass is combined
by the attenuation.
• During the extrusion process, the molten glass goes through the
bushings, that are resistant to erosion, made at the forehearth.
• The bushings are heated by electronic means and the temperature
control is done to constantly maintain the viscosity of the glass.

4th Step, Coating
• Coating is the final stage of the process, where coating is done by a
way of coating, which is applied the terms binder, sizing and size are
used to mean the same thing in this industry, but to term it size, is the
correct term for application of a coat.
• The coating is usually added to it, such that there’s an increase in
weight of about 0.5% to 0.2% added to the original weight.

5th Step Drying and packaging
• The fibres or the filaments that are finally drawn, get collected and
bundled, to form strands of glass, where one strand can form almost
50 – 1500 filaments.
• The strands are wound onto a drum to form packages that resembles
threads wound together.

The Application of Glass Fibre in Aviation and merits and demerits
• The bodies of the planes have been made to weigh less, and
aluminium has been used for quite a number of times.
• The interior of the planes’ components like the chairs, lavatories
structures, overhead bins, etc, have now adopted the use of fibre glass.

• Other materials that might find use in the place of fibreglass, is
aluminium metal.
• Aluminium metal is light in weight, and tough because it is metal, it is
able to buffer the aircraft against impacts.
• Aluminium is also very expensive to be used. Another advantage of
aluminium is that it is easier to maintain, than fibre glass (DiGiovanni,
2018).