New perspectives in fibres reinforced polymer composites for aerospace structures

Quentin-Arthur Poutrel (1) , Laurence Cornillon (2) , Jolanta Hamerlak , Ludovic Chichignoud , Simon Appel , Ugo Lafont (3) , Shumit Das (3) , Francois Tournilhac (4, 1) , Olivier Damiano (2)

1 C3M - Chimie Moléculaire, Macromoléculaire et Matériaux (UMR7167)
2 TAS - Thales Alenia Space [Toulouse]
3 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
4 MMC - Laboratoire Matière Molle et Chimie

The composite field brings constant progress and development with design of new materials and technologies. These aim to reduce cost of manufacture and maintenance, but also, to increase their performances combined with tailorable properties. Thales Alenia Space, always looking for innovative development in composites, is now taking part in two ESA projects focusing on vitrimers materials and thin plies technology. Vitrimers are an emerging class of polymer materials developed in 2011 by Leibler and coworkers. Initially, based on the traditional chemistry of thermosets, they possess their chemical resistances and mechanical strength. Nonetheless, their covalent bonds are exchangeable upon trigger (e.g. heat, UV, etc.). This property is giving them the ability to be weld, reprocessed, or recycled, behaviour usually owned by thermoplastic materials. This covalent bond exchange mechanism makes vitrimers insoluble, yet, weldable onto themselves rendering them highly attractive for the composite field. On the other hand, thin plies technology have been posited as a great alternative to traditional fibres reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. This technique allows to produce lighter and stronger composites while being cost effective. Already used in sports applications, the aerospace field could highly benefits from their development to a larger scale. Therefore, Thales Alenia Space ESA projects have started to explore simultaneously the potential of both this new class of polymer and technology as follow: (i) a one year TDE project focusing on the development of vitrimer prepreg and laminate for space applications. So far, a vitrimer resin with appropriate properties (Tg, outgassing, latency) for impregnation, lamination and welding has been selected. Further work in the prepreg development is expected to result in vitrimer integration with low investments on the manufacturing lines. (ii) An ongoing Thales Alenia Space/SCNTPL project (TRP) for which materials (resin and fibres) choice, manufacturing and use case trade off resulted in small scale prototypes (2019). Further characterisations and design of full scale prototypes have ensured the continuity of the project during 2020 and first prototypes (full scale) are expected in 2021. This TRP project shows the possibility to apply thin plies technology to real scale aerospace applications.

Mots clés: Composites vitrimers Thin Plies; Composites; vitrimers; Thin Plies

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Quentin-Arthur Poutrel, Laurence Cornillon, Jolanta Hamerlak, Ludovic Chichignoud, Simon Appel, et al.. New perspectives in fibres reinforced polymer composites for aerospace structures. European Conference on Spacecraft Structures, Materials and Environmental Testing (ECSSMET 2021), DLR-CNES-ESA, Mar 2021, Braunscheiwg, Germany. ⟨hal-04237573⟩