Indian and Chinese aviation industry: the EASA framework option

Purpose This viewpoint aims to increase the awareness on the demand faced by the technical sector of the Indian and Chinese aviation industry and how this can be met by the adoption of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulatory framework.Design/methodology/approach A brief overview of the challenges that the Indian and the Chinese aviation industry is facing is provided, in terms of meeting the demand for sustainable growth. A description of the structure of the EASA framework and its main characteristics is presented, along with a focussed discussion on the framework's applicability to the Indian and the Chinese aviation maintenance and broader continuing airworthiness sector.Findings The EASA regulatory framework can offer a safe and business-effective solution for the Indian and the Chinese aviation industry, aligning with world's best practice.Practical implications A discussion in adopting the EASA framework in India and China can be helpful in increasing awareness and assisting decision makers realise that this is a possible option.Originality/value This viewpoint can be useful in provoking discussion, by summarising the key issues and points surrounding aviation regulation standardisation in India and China, along the lines of the EASA framework. Moreover, some possible ways to increase awareness around EASA in India and China are discussed from the point of view of influencing tomorrow's decision makers

Influence of environmental conditioning on mechanical properties of carbon dry fibre preformed thermoplastic matrix composites manufactured via automated placement-resin infusion process

In the present work, dry fibre placement (DFP) of co-polyamide based carbon fibre spreadtow bindered tape for fabrication of thermoplastic acrylic resin composites was explored. The DFP followed by vacuum assisted liquid resin infusion (LRI) is expected to be an alternative process to traditional preforming approaches. This research work looks at the influence of water immersion on the performance of the composites was studied. The thermo mechanical behaviour of the aged and unaged samples were carried out as a function of temperature. The flexural strength of aged samples dropped by 4 and 17% after one and three months respectively. However, no significant changes were observed in flexural modulus compared to unaged. The interlaminar shear strength decreased by 19% and 35% after one month immersion and three months immersion. The results were complimented by fractographic and morphological studies

Analysis of failure modes for a non-crimp basalt fiber reinforced epoxy composite under flexural and interlaminar shear loading

This study investigates the mechanical properties (inter laminar shear and flexural strength) and failure modes of a basalt/epoxy composite, manufactured using a non-crimp-fabric (NCF) with vacuum assisted resin infusion process. Under flexural bending, damage initiated on the compression side between 20 and 50% of peak load and progressed from ply to ply with increasing load. Failure at tension surface of the flexural bending specimen was confined to the bottom ply and was evident only close to final failure. Fibre kinking was the dominant failure mechanism on the compression side whereas fibre breakage was the dominant mechanism on the tension side. Regarding interlaminar shear, interlaminar shear cracks initiated once samples were subjected to stress levels above 50% of peak stress and grew until failure with the crack following the fibre matrix interface of 90 degree tows. Overall, comparing with values available in the open literature, the NCF basalt/epoxy composite outperformed plain-woven basalt/epoxy and plain-woven E-glass/epoxy composites in terms of both flexural and interlaminar shear strength but demonstrated lower strength than NCF E-glass/epoxy composite

Mechanical evaluation and failure analysis of composite laminates manufactured using automated dry fibre tape placement followed by liquid resin infusion

Automated tape placement is seen as a promising technique for the manufacture of net-shape dry fibre preforms using carbon fibre tapes. However, most of the dry fibre tapes (DFT) available on the market are proprietary and aimed mainly at the aerospace sector. In the current study, two different binders (polyurethane and phenoxy water based binder) were used to coat and hence stabilise the carbon fibre tows. A net shaped preform was manufactured using Laser-Assisted Dry Fibre Tape Placement (LDFTP) and subsequently infused by vacuum assisted liquid resin infusion. The mechanical properties of the resulting laminates were compared to the laminates where the preform was manually laid up by hand with and without a coating (baseline). Failure mechanism analysis was carried out using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The LDFTP process improved cured ply thickness (17–20% reduction) and fibre volume fraction (+9%). Interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) showed a significant improvement of 35–48%. However, only laminates manufactured using phenoxy coated LDFTP manufactured preforms showed comparable flexural strength to the uncoated baseline. Flexural modulus reduced in all cases. Further optimisation of binder content and process parameters (layup rate, consolidation temperature) is required for high speed deposition, better consolidation and improvements in mechanical properties

Numerical and experimental procedure for material calibration using the serial/parallel mixing theory, to analyze different composite failure modes

This work proposes a calibration procedure to obtain the material parameters required by the Serial/Parallel Mixing Theory for the analysis of composites. A set of experimental tests are defined to obtain the main composite failure modes. Then, it is proposed to calculate the parameters required by the formulation using the experimental results. The procedure proposed is validated by comparing the numerical results, with those obtained from the experimental campaign. This comparison shows that the Serial/Parallel mixing theory is capable of representing the failure modes of the composite for different loading scenarios as well as the material toughnes