Download FRPM 2017, 3 * 6 July, Manchester, UK

FRPM 2017, 3 – 6 July, Manchester, UK
Fire Structural Safety of Aircraft Materials
A.P. Mouritz*
School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University)
Abstract
Modern passenger aircraft are constructed using a wide variety of light-weight structural materials,
although increasingly flammable organic materials such as fibre-reinforced polymer composites and
fibre metal laminates are being used in place of aluminium alloys in large safety-critical structures
such as the fuselage and wings. This presentation compares the relative fire structural performance of
aircraft-grade aluminium alloys against carbon-epoxy laminates and fibre metal laminates (or
GLARE). Research reveals that composite materials heat-up faster and reach higher temperatures than
aluminium alloys when exposed to fire. However, carbon-fibre composites have vastly superior
residual tensile strength than aluminium alloys when exposed to fire due to the capacity of the fibres to
retain stiffness and strength at high temperature. The fire structural performance of aluminium alloys
and fibre-metal laminates are similar. The processes controlling the softening and failure of these
different classes of aerospace materials will be explained in the presentation.