Abstract:
The growing environmental awareness throughout the world has triggered a shift towards
designing environmentally friendly materials from sustainable renewable resources. Natural
fibre reinforced composites are already being used for construction and automotive
applications and now can play a significant role as secondary structures in the next generation
of aircrafts – a necessary driver as per European Union’s Clean Sky initiative. The advantages
of using natural fibre composites are environmental gains, reduced energy consumption, light
weight, insulation and sound absorption properties and reduction in the dependence on
petroleum based materials. Currently, one of the research programs at CSIR is focused on
developing composites from natural fibre and phenolic matrices to be used as commercial
panels for cabin interior. Efforts are underway to solve the issues related to strength, adhesion
between fibre and matrix, moisture and thermal durability besides compliance to meet with
airworthiness standards. The latter part of the program will deal with biopolymer matrices
which would lead to development of green composites for aerospace applications. The present
paper will discuss approaches and methodology used and some preliminary results
highlighting the challenges involved.
