Requirements for Moving Towards Liquid Molding of Large Composite Structures for Aerospace

Requirements for moving beyond the current state of the art in polymer-matrix composites for large commercial and military transport aircraft via the use of liquid molding will be presented. These requirements will be rooted in understandings of regulatory safety requirements and in recent developments in materials and modeling. Key parameters such as the interrelationships between modeling, quality control, and scale-up will be discussed in some detail with a focus on how these need to be matured or adapted for aerospace usage and how they address the persistent need for improved performance at reduced weight. Ongoing work in several technologies will be presented relative to how they fit into the maturation of next-generation composites and tools for developing new composite materials. Scale-up will be illustrated by examples in modeling moving up from material-property-level requirements to system-level performance and moving down to micro and submicron level. These illustrations will be used to show an approach for effectively moving between scales in modeling, testing, fabrication, and design.