Review of Recent Developments in Composite Material for Aerospace Applications

Abstract

Advanced materials are a key element in the development of modern aerospace vehicles and composites are one of the most promising types of such materials. They tend to be significantly lighter than their metal counterparts, while possessing impressive strength and performance characteristics. This paper describes recent work and developments in three major types of composite materials — polymer matrix composite (PMC), metal matrix composite (MMC), and ceramic matrix composite (CMC). Recent work in nanocomposites, which is particularly applicable to polymer matrix and metal matrix composites is also presented and discussed. In addition, some recent work in composite material damping is discussed and a modeling strategy for amplitude dependent damping is developing based upon heuristic modeling considerations and experimental testing results.