GLARE

The GLARE (Knell-REinforced") is a new composite material (glass fibers and Aluminum) of high-technology.

It is composed of fine layers of aluminum (0,3 to 0,5 mm) and of one-way impregnated glass fiber tablecloths of epoxy resin. Realized for the moment by Fokker Aerostructures, this material will be also produced by Dasa, the German partner of Airbus.

It was developed at the beginning of the Années 1980 by the Structures laboratory and Materials of the faculty of aerospace of the Université of Delft. The patent of this new material is held today by the Technological University of Delft which had the idea to associate aluminum and the composites so that they compensate for their defects mutually, to give a hybrid material: the GLARE :

the composite are very resistant to the load, but have a low shock resistance, as well as weak static properties in the event of cracking;
the Aluminum is less resistant to the load, but resists the impacts better, and has a greater plastic zone.

This new material was adopted to carry out partly the fuselage of the Airbus A380, after experimentation on the Airbus A310, because it presents a certain number of advantages:

better mechanical characteristics than aluminum alloys, previously used;
better corrosion resistance;
better fire resistance, which can appear capital in the event of crash landing;
speed of almost constant and relatively weak cracking (10 to 100 times lower than those of aluminum alloys);
better distribution of the constraints and reduction in the stress concentration at the head of crack;
better strength to the level of the junctions of assembly;
better shock resistance, becomes deformed without breaking;
a density less low than of the traditional aluminum panels, from where a profit of all the more high weight as the panels are large.

Random links: