Objectives and Benefits
The Action aims to deliver a reliable roadmap for enabling certification of primary bonded composite structures.
This Action will tackle the scientific challenges in the different stages of the life-cycle of a bonded structure through the synergy of multidisciplinary fields and knowledge transfer. Despite the motivation being aircraft structures, which is believed to have the most demanding certification, it will directly involve other application fields in which similar needs are required.
Specific Objectives
- Develop common definitions on the topic, namely: i) kissing bonds vs. weak bonds; ii) defects vs. degradation; iii) prognosis of in-service life methodologies vs. design methodologies.
- Collect existing knowledge (state of the art) on the five areas of research: adhesive synthesization and interface bonding, design, manufacturing, in-service life and disassembly.
- Collect the requirements and needs of the stakeholders and certification agencies, in terms of regulations (REACH), materials, inspection techniques, testing, models and manufacturing tools.
- Define the main scientific and industrial challenges to put forward in upcoming Research and Technology activities.
- Coordinate and benchmark different test methodologies and models in each of the five fields.
- Define standard dataset for material data clustered for different application cases (analytical methods, numerical simulations, manufacturing parameters, etc.).
- Collect existing test data and create an open access database (material properties, standard tests, etc.)
- Disseminate the knowledge to the researchers and stakeholders.
- Define, together with the European industry, researchers, academia and certification bodies, the improvements for the next generation of composite structures.
- Inform the general public of the technology developments to alleviate mistrust in adhesive bonding.
- Stimulate exchange of knowledge and a common research agenda around the topic bonded primary structures within the context of a roadmap to certification.
- Bridge distinct disciplines participating in the topic, such as material science, surface science, structural mechanics, design, physics, big data handling, and automation/robotics.
- Involve early career investigators, under-represented gender and countries less represented in the field of composite bonded structures.