BA's first Boeing 787 Dreamliners – carbon-fibre planes which are much smaller than the A380 but with a similar range and fuel efficiency – arrived at Heathrow last week, making BA the first airline in Europe to operate both of the pioneering planes.
The average orientations tend towards the standard β-fibre plane-strain compression texture components, albeit with some variations.
Predictions are derived for the dependence of the in-plane Young's modulus, out-of-plane Young's modulus, and in-plane shear modulus on out-of-plane fibre orientation for a fibre volume fraction of 0.20.
Additional manufacturing defects can be in the form of fibre breakage, in-plane fibre distortion or z-binder fibre distortion.
The effects of the in-plane fibre architecture on the delamination resistance of the composite laminates were also investigated.
Carbon-fibre front dive planes, like upturned whiskers on a manga comic hero, conspire with a massive rear wing to create downforce.
Measured fracture energies are compared with model predictions incorporating information about in-plane fibre orientation distribution, fibre volume fraction and single fibre work of fracture.
However, for medium velocity impact, the in-plane fibre fracture surface was found to be at the locations of TTT-reinforcement.
Out-of-plane fibre waviness or 'wrinkle' defects significantly reduce the strength of laminated composites under quasi-static tension loads.
These predictions are assessed by reference to experimental results for transversely isotropic networks, with very low average out-of-plane fibre orientation, made by sintering compressed mats of stainless steel fibres.
