Dr. Faheem Uddin, C. Text., FTI

Associate Professor, UMT Ph. D from University of Manchester, UK Fellow of The Textile Institute, UK, HEC approved supervisor for Ph. D research UNESCO- AEGIS survey laureate 30 textile research papers in international

refereed journals 15 year working experience worldwideTopic

Textiles in Aerospace Applications

Textiles in aerospace applications

Dr. Faheem Uddin, C. Text., FTI

Textile Department, SST, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.

Presentation contents

Presentation aims What is aerospace and aerospace industry Why textile in interdisciplinary applications What are aerospace textiles G- suit Astronauts suiting User stations/ missions Suits for planetary explorations Parachutes Performance requirements from textiles DRA forecasts and Pakistan Thanks

Presentation aims

Introducing textiles used in aerospace applications

Realizing the significance of aerospace textiles

Motivating the research R & D interest in technical textiles

What is aerospace and aerospace industry Aerospace can be aeronautics (flight science in Earth's atmosphere)

and space flight (vehicle movement beyond the atmosphere).

It deals with flight, and the aerospace industry manufactures for things that fly. The jobs are done by team of specialized individiuals.

http://www.launchintoaerospace.org

“In most industrial countries, the aerospace industry is a cooperation of public and private industries. For example, several countries have a space program under the command of the government, such as NASA in the United States, ESA in Europe, the Canadian Space Agency in Canada, RKA in Russia, China National Space Administration in China, and Iranian Space Agency in Iran.

Along with these public space programs, many companies produce technical tools and components such as spaceships and satellites.” From Wikipedia

Why textile in interdisciplinary applications

Textiles as material have dynamism for interdisciplinary applications: Why is that!

High strength Softness Flexibility in structure Air and vapor permeability High strength to weight ratio Stability to environmental conditions Conformable to shape and sizes

Textiles in aircraft

From pilot clothing to plane- would be anywhere

Aerospace textiles

Aerospace textile is an area of technical textiles that covers special finished products to engineered textiles.

It includes the textile containing articles for specific functional requirements to work in aircrafts, space shuttles, lunar and mars mission, and space transportation.

Textile fibers in aeroplanes

Since 1960, significant rise in the use of carbon fiber is noted.

By 2006, Boeing 787 consisted of 50 % by weight and 80 % by volume carbon fiber- that was a textile plane.

Carbon fiber was used as laminates for control surfaces, the flaps, spoilers, gear doors (main landing doors are larger than the wings in fighter planes- generally).

The interior of Boeing 747 400 was from carbon fiber, and there are 1200 flying today.

Modern commercial aircrafts are made of fabric layers pasted with resin in a composite.

Source: Alan K Pritchard, textiles, (2008), Volume 35, No. 4, 15-16.

Carbon fibers

Carbon fibers (cf) provide the properties in composites including high strength, stiffness, lower weight, outstanding fatigue characteristics.

Light weight material are particularly suited to military aircraft.

Carbon fiber density is 1750 kg per cubic mtr. 60 % cf of world production is consumed in US, 50 %

of world production capacity is in Japan. Source: Raghavendra R. Hedge, //web.uk.edu

Flammability properties, fire hazard, of aircraft carbon- fiber structural composite are recently, October 2007, released by US department of transportation, federal aviation administration to the US public though NTIS.

G- Suits

Type of garment generally in the form of tightly fitting trousers worn by aviators to control the blood circulation at higher level of acceleration.

It is to reduce blood flow to lower side of human body under the influence of acceleration or deceleration.

Generally, a g-suit is composed of inflatable bladders, containing air or liquid that can be pressurized using a g-sensitive valve and held firm to legs and abdomen under higher values of g.

The principle desired function of g-suit is to resist the blood draining from brain and upper body parts to legs of aviators

G- suit………ii

G- suit……..iii

Blood pooling results in preventing the loss of conscious and the variation in the level of visibility of aircraft pilot.

The initial effect of blood pooling in lower parts is a reduced level of vision termed as grey- out (= browning of scene). Stronger vision loss is termed as tunnel- vision, and the ultimate result is a black- out effect called g-induced loss of consciousness (g- LOC).

Development project on the study of g- suit at NED University with a public department was an encouraging step in gaining the local skill.

G- induced black out

G- suit

Pilot, as a result of rapid changes in the acceleration, typically, in few seconds a pilot weighing 160 pound can feel a nine times gain in his weight reaching to 1440 pounds.

Currently the g-suits are available that can retain the aviator consciousness under an acceleration of 9g.

Popular Science Magazine, California (USA). The magazine had recognized an Air Force Test Pilot School tested prototype anti- gravity suit in the top-100 technology development of 2000.

Space suits

The clothing used in space crafts is generally called space suits.

Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle,International Space Station (ISS) and Constellation had benefited from the performance of textiles.

However, all these were of highly specialized nature in design, material development, fabrication, testing and quality assurance.

NASA (National Aeronautic and Space Administration) had used space suit pressure garment. Apollo A7LB was the first highly mobile space suit that helped astronauts to walk on the lunar surface in late 1960’s.

Textiles- going in space

In space shuttle

Apollo A7LB

Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit

Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) can be described as a waist entry suit with a hard upper torso (HUT) and relatively softer mobility joints made of fabric.

EMU suits were particularly to work in zero gravity.

Suits for planetary explorations

For planetary exploration, improved mobility and waist flexing are important for moving up and down for kneeling and ground features study.

Entry method is considered as an important feature, and the space suits had been named in terms of entry types.

These include waist entry, rear entry, bi-planar entry and soft zipper type entry. Several characteristics of space- suit including suit sizing, suit mass, suit volume, suit comfort etc. have resulted from the entry type.

The considerations of vehicle and surrounding interfaces including air locks, hatches and manned rover (a small vehicle launched from a Lander and used to explore the surface of the moon or planet) are addressed in the design of entry type.

Manned rovers

Moon rovers

Parachute………i

Parachute is a type of space textiles contributing in the space operations. It is effectively contributing in aerospace motion for men and materials.

Parachutes help the safe decent of person or material from aerospace to ground surface.

These can also be used for horizontal deceleration of fixed- wing aircraft

Parachute……...ii http://wings.avkids.com/Book/Nature/Images/parachute.gif

Parachute…….iii

Generally, a parachute composes of thin light- weight fabric, supporting tapes and suspension lines.

Nylon, polyester, Kevlar and Nomex fiber types can be used in fabric for parachute.

The tethers connecting the parachute to back shell are made of Kevlar. Significant physical properties are demonstrated by the fibers including Kevlar, Nomex types fibers. Strength of Kevlar fibers is five times greater than steel on an equal weight basis.

The toughness and high rigidity are useful to produce engineered textiles where resistance to cut and shock is desired. Flexibility and weather resistance of fibers provide interesting features to achieve in aerospace operations.

The forces acting upon the parachute following its full expansion are addressed in developing the design of parachute. Typically, these forces can be calculated from the atmospheric density, velocity, parachute drag area and mass. 

Textile performance in aerospace

Low shrinkage High abrasion and impact resistance Thermal and electrical insulation Flame retardancy Higher thermal- mechanical properties Stability to UV effects Stability to ozone effects Non- hygroscopic High strength to weight ratio ……….

Traditional functional textiles

The textile articles derived from home products however, with added functionality.

Curtains Upholstery fabrics Wall covers Head set Floor covering Seat covers etc.

DRA forecasts for technical textile market share

Americas 29 % Europe 24 % Asia 44 % (Lets find Pakistan!) ROW 3 % ROW- rest of the world

Thanks

Enquiries Comments Presentation closed For further interest in technical textile product

development and performance evaluation interests- contact details;

faheem@umt.edu.pk dfudfuca@yahoo.ca