Composite materials theoretically provide significantly more degrees of freedom in the design of aeronautical structures than metals. Individual ply sequence fibre orientation or fibre volume are examples of composite specific variables that may be explored to improve product performance. However, the huge theoretical design space is strongly reduced in the real design life by many practical considerations: necessary initial knowledge of material properties, non-recurring and recurring cost of the current manufacturing and assembly solutions, aircraft development lead time, adequacy between existing capabilities of optimisation or sizing methods & tools versus potential design space to be explored. Due to these practical constraints, current designs are still strongly inspired by a 'black-metal' way of thinking, designing, sizing, manufacturing & assembling structures.
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