end-user marketing geosynthetics / advanced composites - TenCate

As part of the Thermoplastics Affordable
Primary Aircraft Structures (TAPAS) project,
aircraft manufacturer Airbus and its partners,
including Fokker Aerostructures and TenCate
Advanced Composites, are examining the
potential applications for thermoplastics in
aircraft. In this context Fokker Aerostructures
has built a full-scale demonstrator of a
torsion box based on carbon laminates.
Torsion (‘twisting’) and bending occur when an
object is subjected to tensile and compressive
forces, which results in tensions building
up in the material. A torsion box allows the
torsion and bending which occur in aircraft - for
example in the flaps on the tail piece and the
rudders - to be absorbed. A torsion box in the
wing for example will prevent it tilting.
Absorbing forces
‘The wing and tail are box constructions’,
explains Arnt Offringa, director of R&D at
Fokker Aerostructures. ‘You can compare them
with the cardboard core in a roll of paper towel.
This is a stiff, light tube and constructions like
this allow you to absorb a great many forces.
Within TAPAS Airbus is itself focusing among
other things on the development of a fuselage.
Fokker Aerostructures and TenCate Advanced
Composites are helping in this project.
This demonstrator allowed us to add something.’
The horizontal tail of the Gulfstream
G650 business jet served as a model for the
torsion box. The development is targeting
future Airbus programmes. ‘It could be a
large flap for an Airbus wing, some of which
are ten metres long. Airbus is interested in
the development of fuselage structures in
thermoplastics and is happy to have the Dutch
industry as a supplier of these structures or
wing flaps.’ TenCate can play a role in this
with TenCate Cetex ® carbon composite.
In September work will begin on a test
programme at the National Aerospace
Laboratory in the Noordoostpolder (NL).
The results will be made known in the early
spring of 2012. Where necessary, these will
lead to adjustments to the design. Once this
has been done, the torsion box will in principle
be ready for production, with the incorporation
of TenCate Cetex ® composite materials.
• Construction of demonstrator of a torsion
box with carbon composites, as part of
the TAPAS programme
• Development targets future Airbus
aircraft programmes
• TenCate Cetex ® composite materials will
be used in the production stage
www.tencateadvancedcomposites.com
advancedcomposites.europe@tencate.com
www.tapasproject.nl
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