DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW BERYLLIUM/GRAPHITE-EPOXY SANDWICH COMPOSITE

MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN MATERIAL ENGINEERING WILL BE REQUIRED IN ORDER TO MEET THE INCREASINGLY STRINGENT CONSTRAINTS OF HIGH STIFFNESS AND LOW WEIGHT STRUCTURAL MATERIALS FOR AEROSPACE VEHICLES. SIGNIFICANT EFFORT IS BEING SPENT ON DEVELOPING NEW EXOTIC METAL ALLOYS AND COMPOSITE MATERIALS IN AN ATTEMPT TO SATISFY THE STATED CHALLENGE. AN ALTERNATE APPROACH TO BE CONSIDERED IS THE CREATION OF A NEW MATERIAL BY THE COMBINATION OF TWO EXISTING 'PROVEN'STRUCTURAL MATERIEALS, BERYLLIUM AND GRAPHITE-EPOXY. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO CONSTRUCT A SANDWICH COMPOSITE CONSISTING OF DISTINCT ALTERNATING LAYERS OF BERYLLIUM AND GRAPHITEEPOXY. THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE NEW SANDWICH LAMINATE WILL BE MEASURED EXPERIMENTALLY AND COMPARED TO THE INDIVIDUAL MATERIALS. THEORETICAL MODELS WILL ALSO BE DEVELOPED FOR PREDICTING THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE NEW LAMINATE.