Aerospace Structures and Materials

MERL staff have experience in aircraft applications such as:

• Aircraft canopies and windscreens - seals and crack growth studies
• Rotor components fabricated from composite materials
• Aircraft landing gear, brakes and seals
• Fixed wing stiffened composite fuselage, stiffener debonding
• Satellite sandwich structure tests and seal verification
• Materials tests on radomes fabricated from sandwich structures
• Rocket motor propellants performance
• Aero engine seals and components
• Testing of drive shafts
• Electrical insulation types

• Composite materials including glass/epoxy, carbon/epoxy, carbon/thermoplastic, kevlar/epoxy, woven and braided architectures, foam and honeycomb sandwich structures
• Adhesives, bonding of aluminium and composites to each other and investigation or face sheet bonding and elastomer to metal and composite bonding
• Elastomers used in vibration isolation components and seals
• Carbon - carbon – used in braking applications
• Driveshafts for primary hydraulic systems