DYNAMIC BEHAVIOUR OF A NEWLY DEVELOPED ECO-FRIENDLY UNIDIRECTIONAL CARBON FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER (CFRP) COMPOSITE FOR WING STRUCTURES IN AIRCRAFTS

The development of CFRPs have modernized the engineering in aircraft industries in recent years. The major advantage is their strength to weight ratio, which reduces the overall load in the structure. Recent research are on its significance and abilities to be used in critical components i.e., replacing metals. One such is wing structures as they undergo various mechanisms ranging from vibrations to impact. These effects can be reduced if the material possesses good viscoelastic properties. In this work, a unidirectional composite is developed using a bio-based polymer i.e., poly(hydroxyurethane) (PHU) as adhesive material instead of typical synthetic compounds in order to improve the viscoelastic property of the composite. The advantages of bio-based polymers are: better compound stability, thermal stability, short gel time and good degradation property in addition to being eco-friendly to the environment. These in turn improves the ability of the polymer to absorb plastic energy when work is done i.e., damage mechanism. However, a composite has more than one material in its system and hence, the polymer becomes an intrinsic element. Therefore, the viscoelastic property of the composite signifies its ability to dissipate the absorbed energy and regain its original physical form upon deformation. Hence, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) were performed on the newly developed composite to understand its viscoelastic behaviours.