Processing of Aluminium-Silicon Alloy with Metal Carbide as Reinforcement through Powder-Based Additive Manufacturing: A Critical Study

Powder-based additive manufacturing (PAM) is a potential fabrication approach in advancing state-of-the-art research to produce intricate components with high precision and accuracy in near-net form. In PAM, the raw materials are used in powder form, deposited on the surface layer by layer, and fused to produce the final product. PAM composite fabrication for biomedical implants, aircraft structure panels, and automotive brake rotary components is gaining popularity. In PAM composite fabrication, the aluminium cast alloy is widely preferred as a metal matrix for its unique properties, and different reinforcements are employed in the form of oxides, carbides, and nitrides. However, for enhancing the mechanical properties, the carbide form is predominantly considered. This comprehensive study focuses on contemporary research and reveals the effect of metal carbide’s (MCs) addition to the aluminium matrix processed through various PAM processes, challenges involved, and potential scopes to advance the research.

Measuring and Testing Composite Materials Used in Aircraft Construction

This paper is focused on the use of special composite materials for the construction of aircraft components. It focuses on measuring and testing the strength of reinforced composite materials used in damaged aircraft parts repairs. To determine the layer required to repair a part of the aircraft, it is necessary to know the strength limit of the material and its parts. The article describes experimental measurements of manufactured composite samples that have been subjected to tensile stress. Aim of the performed tensile tests was to determine the maximum tensile stress that the composite materials are able to transmit until they are damaged. Measurement determining the maximum stress level is important to ensure the required safety of the aircraft structure on which the composite structure was repaired.

Effect of Cut-Out Shape on the Stresses in Aircraft Wing Ribs under Aerodynamic Load

Ribs in aircraft wings maintain the airfoil shape of the wing under aerodynamic loads and also support the resulting bending and shear loads that act on the wing. Aircrafts are designed for least weight and hence the wings are made of hollow torsion box and the ribs are designed with cut-outs to reduce the weight of the aircraft structure. These cut-outs on the ribs will lead to higher stresses and stress concentration that can lead to failure of the aircraft structures. The stresses depend on the shape of the cut-outs in the ribs and thus in the present work, the commercial software ANSYS was used to evaluate the stresses on the ribs with different shapes of cut-outs. Four different shapes of cut-out were considered to study the effect of cut-out shape on the stresses in the ribs. It was found that the best shape for the cut-outs on the ribs of wings to reduce weight is elliptical.

Crack Growth Prediction on Critical Component for Structure Life Extension of Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Sukhoi Su-30MKM

The critical aircraft structure, being the load-bearing members, is a vital component for any aircraft. The effect of fatigue loading, operating conditions, and environmental degradation has caused the structural integrity of the airframe to be assessed for its airworthiness requirement. Using the fatigue design concept of Safe Life, the RMAF adopts the Aircraft Structure Integrity Program (ASIP) to monitor the structural integrity of its critical components. RMAF has produced the task card using the engineering analysis concept on the aircraft’s critical structure. Various Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) methods were used, and for this analysis, the Crack Growth Prediction method was used to determine the crack growth behavior and its ultimate failure point in case of any crack occurrences. Although there are six critical locations, the wing root is chosen since it has the highest possibility of fatigue failure. The analytical methods which were discussed are Crack Growth Analysis and Low Cycle Fatigue. For the numerical method, NX Nastran was used for the simulation of crack growth. The result from the crack growth analysis was validated with the numerical result. The conclusion is that, based on the fatigue life cycle, the wing root structure condition is not affected by severe damage, and its failure is approximately around 30 to 100 years for both the through hole and through side crack. Thus, its structural life can be extended. The research outcome will be on the extension of the structure life of the aircraft wing.

Enhanced Feature Extraction Algorithms Using Oscillatory-Mode Pulsed Eddy Current Techniques for Aircraft Structure Inspection

A review of the existing literature shows that modern pulsed eddy current (PEC) technique for flaw detection in aircraft structure inspection is typically carried out in aperiodic mode. Аt the same time, the unstable characteristic points of the EC signal usually used as informative parameters can restrict the potential of this excitation mode due to significant measurement errors. This article considers an advanced PEC method of NDT based on the oscillatory mode. To obtain the conditions concerned with different modes of EC probe response oscillations, an equivalent scheme of the “testing object – EC probe” system was developed and analyzed. The frequency and attenuation coefficient of natural oscillations are proposed as the informative parameters of the probe signals. The obtained mathematical model of the probe signals allows for the dependence of proposed signal parameters on the characteristics of the testing object to be evaluated. Herein, we first develop algorithmic software for determining and analyzing the discrete amplitude and phase characteristics of PEC NDT signals based on the simulation results. The errors of the natural frequency oscillations and the attenuation coefficient determination as well as the optimal time for its determination are analyzed in order to minimize the possible errors. Next, the proposed informative parameters are experimentally investigated using a set of specimens. The obtained results confirm the possibility of the proposed methodology to enhance the inspection procedures related to the electrical conductivity and geometric parameters measurements as well as the detected defect sizing.

Structural failures diagnosis using a hybrid artificial intelligence method / Diagnóstico de falhas estruturais utilizando um método híbrido de inteligência artificial

This paper presents a Wavelet-artificial immune system algorithm to diagnose failures in aeronautical structures. Basically, after obtaining the vibration signals in the structure, is used the wavelet module for transformed the signals into the wavelet domain. Afterward, a negative selection artificial immune system realizes the diagnosis, identifying and classifying the failures. The main application of this methodology is the auxiliary structures inspection process in order to identify and characterize the flaws, as well as perform the decisions aiming at avoiding accidents or disasters. In order to evaluate this methodology, we carried out the modeling and simulation of signals from a numerical model of an aluminum beam, representing an aircraft structure such as a wing. The results demonstrate the robustness and accuracy methodology.