Manufacture and characterisation of a structural supercapacitor demonstrator
Journal article, 2024
Structural power composites, a class of multifunctional materials, may facilitate lightweighting and accelerate widespread electrification of sustainable transportation. In the example considered in this paper, structural power composite fuselage components could provide power to open aircraft doors in an emergency and thus reduce or eliminate the mass and volume needed for supercapacitors currently mounted on the doors. To demonstrate this concept, an 80 cm long multifunctional composite C-section beam was designed and manufactured, which powered the opening and closing of a desktop-scale composite aircraft door. Twelve structural supercapacitor cells were made, each 30 cm × 15 cm × 0.5 mm, and two stacks of four cells were integrated into the web of the beam by interleaving and encasing them with low-temperature-cure woven carbon fibre/epoxy prepreg. This article culminates by considering the engineering challenges that need to be addressed to realise structural power composite components, particularly in an aerospace context.
B. Electrical properties
A. Multifunctional composites
Demonstrator
A. Structural composites
Author
Sang N. Nguyen
Imperial College London
David B. Anthony
Imperial College London
Tomas Katafiasz
Imperial College London
Guocheng Qi
Imperial College London
Beijing Jiaotong University
Seyedalireza Razavi
Imperial College London
Evgeny Senokos
Imperial College London
Emile S. Greenhalgh
Imperial College London
Milo S.P. Shaffer
Imperial College London
A. Kucernak
Imperial College London
Peter Linde
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science
Composites Science and Technology
0266-3538 (ISSN)
Vol. 245 110339Structural pOweR CompositEs foR futurE civil aiRcraft (SORCERER)
European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/738085), 2017-02-01 -- 2020-02-28.
Subject Categories
Aerospace Engineering
Manufacturing, Surface and Joining Technology
Composite Science and Engineering
DOI
10.1016/j.compscitech.2023.110339