| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2024 ASC Technical Conference, US-Japan Joint Symposium, D30 Meeting
|
| Symposium
|
2024 ASC Technical Conference, US-Japan Joint Symposium, D30 Meeting
|
| Presentation Title |
Bonded Nutplate Adhesive Cure Investigation |
| Author(s) |
Sarah Fraser |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Sarah Fraser |
| Abstract Scope |
The use of bonded nutplates eliminates the need for drilling holes in composite airframe structures for traditional nutplate installation. While this may benefit the structural integrity of the composite, using bonded nutplates also has its drawbacks. Bonded nutplate failures have been a Top 10 mission readiness degrader for multiple aircraft platforms for decades. Given the widespread use of bonded nutplates on aircraft, even a 1% failure rate means hundreds of failures for fleet maintainers, each requiring rework/replacement and associated aircraft downtime. Bonded attachment adhesives are typically two-part epoxy-based structural bonding systems, which cure at ambient or elevated temperatures. However, these cure profiles have not been fully optimized for all applications. In previous internal research with bonded attachments, the results indicated a combined elevated and ambient cure (15 minutes elevated followed by 16 hours ambient) provided improved mechanical performance and consistency. This research expands upon the preliminary testing; optimizing the cure by varying time, temperature, and combinations of both to find acceptable cure solutions that are less than the target of 3 days. This effort utilizes modeling and simulation software to iterate and optimize potential cure cycles, followed by thermal analysis of those optimized cures. This is a presentation of data for an ongoing effort that will be followed up with further mechanical testing. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Definite: Post-meeting proceedings |