A new class of materials based on nanocomposites may help to detect sources of failure in an aircraft’s primary structures such as cracks and delamination.A research team in the Mechanics and Aerospace Design Lab at the University of Toronto, is working on the development of these self-monitoring adhesives that will join structural elements. The materials may be one part of the solution for coping with the dramatic rise of composite materials in commercial aircraft structures and the lack of associated industry-wide repair knowledge. (…)
via Design News – News – Adhesives May Predict Structural Failures in Planes.