Self-hEAling morphing Kill vehicle skin (SEAK)

NextGen Aeronautics, a company with unique expertise in morphing structures development and core competency in multifunctional structures, proposes a multifunctional morphing and self-healing composite skin. For the proposed work on highly resilient, damage tolerant, fatigue resistant, self-healing morphing structures, NextGen team’s strength lies in in-depth understanding of morphing, self-healing polymers, and advanced composites as well as an established history of transferring R&D efforts into higher technology readiness levels (TRLs) for integration onto military platforms. NextGen teams with UCSB for their work on polymer synthesis and with UCLA for their work on damage detection. NextGen is also teaming with Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) to apply the multifunctional skin technology to RMS’s KV components. Phase I focused on developing a morphing and self-healing structural composite. Phase II will demonstrate the feasibility of the concept by coupon and component level testing, integration with NextGen’s structural analysis morphing software and multiscale modeling as well as characterize the coupon’s performance for extreme environmental operation. Feasibility of the concept including energy conversion efficiency, material and manufacturing costs, self-healing and reliability requirements of the structure will be reported. The final hardware deliverable will a structural carbon fiber composite prototype that can morph and self-heal on demand.