F. Eberl, Alcan Rhenalu, Issoire Cedex, France; F. Lemaitre, Alcan CRV, Voreppe, Cedex, France; H. Ribes, Alcan Pechiney Rhenalu, Issoire, France; S. Jambu, Alcan Aerospace, Issoire, France; G. Broden, Airbus, Bremen, Germany
From former to today’s flying aircraft, continuous progress has been made in new design and assembling concepts along with permanent increase of metallurgical performance. Starting from the Airbus A300 in the early 70’s, modern bonding techniques, laser beam welding or friction stir welding have been introduced in aircraft programs as A320, A318, A340HGW or A380. After the intrinsic material evaluation by characterizing with standardized tests the strength and damage tolerance performance, small coupon tests are introduced in order to bring the joint efficiency in the evaluation program. Further complexity is integrated in multi-stringer panel tests for the evaluation of new concepts including innovative features such as crenulations, advanced stringer designs or high tech assembling techniques for example. Mid-size panel testing already allows the screening of new design concepts before passing on to rather expensive barrel tests, representing an entire fuselage structure. Innovative design concepts involving high performance and cost-effective assembling techniques applied to the most recently developed alloys for metallic fuselage applications will be presented. In particular monolithic structures produced by integral machining or laser beam welding will be shown for latest generation Al-Li products compared to well known 6xxx baselines. Thanks to the very good corrosion resistance of Al-Li products, innovative assembling sequences are possible in order to reduce even further the cost of the final panel. An overview of cost-reducing and even higher performance concepts will be presented using high performance materials such as 6156, 2139, 2198 or 2196 in order to highlight the long term potential of metallic solutions.
Summary: From former to today’s flying aircraft, continuous progress has been made in new design and assembling concepts along with permanent increase of metallurgical performance. Starting from the Airbus A300 in the early 70’s, modern bonding techniques, laser beam welding or friction stir welding have been introduced in aircraft programs as A320, A318, A340HGW or A380.
After the intrinsic material evaluation by characterizing with standardized tests the strength and damage tolerance performance, small coupon tests are introduced in order to bring the joint efficiency in the evaluation program. Further complexity is integrated in multi-stringer panel tests for the evaluation of new concepts including innovative features such as crenulations, advanced stringer designs or high tech assembling techniques for example. Mid-size panel testing already allows the screening of new design concepts before passing on to rather expensive barrel tests, representing an entire fuselage structure.
Innovative design concepts involving high performance and cost-effective assembling techniques applied to the most recently developed alloys for metallic fuselage applications will be presented. In particular monolithic structures produced by integral machining or laser beam welding will be shown for latest generation Al-Li products compared to well known 6xxx baselines. Thanks to the very good corrosion resistance of Al-Li products, innovative assembling sequences are possible in order to reduce even further the cost of the final panel.
An overview of cost-reducing and even higher performance concepts will be presented using high performance materials such as 6156, 2139, 2198 or 2196 in order to highlight the long term potential of metallic solutions.
