Manufacturing and implementation of cork-based composites in aviation

Abstract

It is vital to examine the most significant positive and negative properties of cork-based composites to determine the use of natural cork-based composites in aviation and their rational implementation in the structural elements. This research provides a broader approach to cork material manufacturing processes and the application areas of cork-based sandwich structure composites in aeronautics. Cork composite applications for gaskets and other sealing materials are presented in this chapter. To understand more about the characteristics of the material, the two main testing approaches were performed: vibration and bending. The results of the conducted vibration testing suggest the possibility of replacing polymethacrylimide foam with a renewable cork-based material in laminated composite structures. The test was performed employing the modal analysis, thus comparing the vibrationdamping characteristics of the material. As could be seen from the obtained bending test results, the material with the highest strength rate was composed of the largest cork-based granules. The withstand force was three times higher than the composite material with polymethacrylimide foam filler. Integrating renewable materials such as cork into the sandwich-structured composites allows to implement and seek the higher level of sustainability in the aviation industry.