Development of Damage Tolerant Composite Structures for Aircraft Engine Components

This Phase I SBIR project is intended to develop lightweight, damage-tolerant, and affordable composite sandwich structures for military and commercial aircraft engine and structural components. The primary focus of the Phase I work will be to develop themanufacturing processes and evaluate the physical, mechanical and structural performance of TYCOR fiber reinforced foam (FRF) composite sandwich panels for high temperature application.The Phase I work will include identification/selection of appropriate high temperature resin and foam materials, manufacturing process trials, fabrication of aerospace-quality composite sandwich test panels as well as physical, structural and ballisticimpact testing. The goal is to demonstrate high temperature processing of TYCOR composite panels while maintaining damage tolerance and affordability. The technology developed in this program will be applicable to military and commercial aircraft engines and structural components. There are numerous commercial applications of this technology in aerospace, marine, transportation, industrial andconstruction.