Fabrication and Evaluation of Integrated Composite Part for Aircraft using OoA (Out-of-Autoclave) Prepreg

Abstract

Conventionally, composite aircraft structures are fabricated within autoclave at high pressure. However, autoclave process has several disadvantages including high curing costs and limitation of part size. Recently, out-ofautoclave (OoA) processes have been investigated in many studies to replace conventional autoclave process. A newly developed OoA prepreg, using conventional ovens, can significantly reduce the curing costs and produce autoclavequality parts. Nevertheless, manufacture of void-free complex shape structure using OoA process presents significant challenges because of the low consolidation pressure. In this study, integrated skin-spar-rib composite part was fabricated using OoA prepreg. And cross-sectional macro-and micro-graphs of the part were examined in order to assess the possibility of replacing conventional autoclave process.

Theoretical modeling and experimental verification of co-curing carbon fiber-reinforced polymer hat-stiffened panels with silicone airbag male mandrels

“…12 Hong et al adopted a new molding process to shape the I-reinforced panel and J-reinforced panel. 13 However, these open-hole types are easy to demold, and the molding method are not suitable for the molding of closed-hole types such as hat-stiffened panels.…”