In an approach they call “nanostitching,” MIT engineers used carbon nanotubes to prevent cracking in multilayered composites. The advance could lead to next-generation airplanes and spacecraft.
  • Paragone@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    I remember somebody was doing 3D-woven composites, possibly for spacecraft, some years ago…

    This is essentially the same idea, but with nanotubes.

    This suggests that weaving reinforcement tow through the layers of the layup would be structurally-significant, if it were done densely-in-pattern, enough…

    In aerospace, maybe it’d be structurally significant ( aircraft have, iirc, only a 10% margin in structural-strength, though that may be just the aluminum semi-monocoque builds )