OVERVIEW

Composites have recently emerged as the structural material of choice for many aerospace applications because of their superior specific strength and stiffness properties. First developed for military applications, composites now play a significant role in a wide range of current-generation aerospace systems.

NIAR’s Composites and Advanced Materials Laboratory plays a major role in the aviation industry by building and testing composite materials that are used on aircraft to determine how they behave under certain conditions, particularly in different levels of heat and moisture.

Unlike structures that use metallic materials in the manufacturing process, the material properties of a composite are manufactured into the structure as part of the fabrication process. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that critical parameters pertaining to composite materials and their production processes are identified to facilitate adherence to standards in the final, engineered part. The Composites and Advanced Materials Laboratory specializes in characterizing the performance of these materials for design and analysis purposes.

The Composites Lab works hand-in-hand with the Structures Lab. There, composites are tested to see what strengths they have. This allows manufacturers to design aircraft parts and to determine how they are affected by damage or repair. With the help of NIAR's Fatigue and Fracture lab, researchers can determine how well those materials hold up over a lifetime of flight cycles.

Working with composite materials isn’t anything new to the aviation industry. Raytheon Aircraft has been working with them since they developed the Starship turboprop in the 1980s. Economic developers say composites could be a springboard for manufacturing other advanced materials. If this need arises, NIAR’s experience with composites puts us in the forefront for taking on this future need.

Despite the multitude of professional labs and universities similar to NIAR, our Composites Lab has been able to retain its positive status by being competitive and meticulous about the quality of our work.

As composite aircraft begin to age and require aging aircraft studies, NIAR's Composites Lab will rise to the challenge with support and funding from the FAA.