ORDERED POLYMER HIGH PERFORMANCE MATRIX FOR AIRCRAFT STRUCTURAL COMPOSITES

THE KEY OVERRIDING DESIGN FACTOR IN FUTURE HIGH PERFORMANCE AIRCRAFT FROM ATF TO NASP IS WEIGHT. WEIGHT REDUCTION DESIGN GOALS ON THESE PROGRAMS ARE TUNNING BETWEEN 30 AND 50 PERCENT WHEN COMPARED TO CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGY. HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPOSITE MATERIALS ARE ESSENTIAL TO MEETING THESE GOALS. A VARIETY OF FIBERS ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR THESE COMPOSITES, WHAT IS MISSING IS A "SUPER MATRIX" MATERIAL THAT WILL EFFICIENTLY SUPPORT THE ADVANCES IN SPECIFIC FIBER STRENGTH AND STIFFNESS WHILE PROVIDING SUPERIOR MATRIX DOMINATED PROPERTIES SUCH AS INTERLAMINAR TOUGHNESS, SHEAR AND FLEX STRENGTH AND STIFFNESS, DIMENSIONAL STABILITY AND VIBRATION DAMPING. THE PROPERTIES OF LIQUID CRYSTAL POLYMERS (LCP) SHOW THE POTENTIAL FOR MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS AS MATRIX MATERIAL IN GRAPHITE FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITES. THE MAJOR OBSTACLE TO THEIR USE AS HIGH TEMPERATURE, HIGH MODULUS MATRIX MATERIALS IS PROCESSING. WE WILL EXPLORE FOUR POTENTIAL ROUTES TO PROCESSING FIBER REINFORCED ORDERED POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES. THE GOAL IS TO PROCESS RIGID ROD MATRIX GRAPHITE FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITES INTO STRUCTURAL MATERIALS WITH ULTRA-EFFICIENT, THREE-DIMENSIONAL INTEGRITY AND WITHOUT THE INTERLAMINAR DELAMINATION PROBLEMS OF EXISTING CONTINUOUS FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITES.