The Su-57 is a master of Russia’s advanced scientific research over the years. Advanced technology, materials, and structures can be seen from the Su-57 fighter. Let's take a look at the new composite materials used on the Su-57 fighter.
01/ Lightning-proof nano stealth coating composite material
A large number of composite materials are used on the Su-57 aircraft. Except for the fuselage frame, wings, the front heat-resistant section of the air intake, the brake base, and the main body of the vertical tail, 70% of the fuselage skin is made of carbon fiber. Made of composite materials, composite parts and components account for almost 25% of the total body weight. Such a large-scale use of composite materials can effectively reduce the weight of the aircraft and improve the performance of the aircraft. However, due to the poor electrical conductivity of the composite materials, it will cause very serious damage to the aircraft during the process of being struck by lightning. Figure 1 is a diagram of the probability of lightning strikes on different parts of the aircraft.
The traditional lightning protection method is mainly to use metal mesh or add a metal particle coating on the surface of carbon fiber to dissipate the high current and heat generated by lightning strikes, but this method will not only increase the weight of the aircraft but also bring new corrosion problem. For this reason, the All-Russian Institute of Aeronautical Materials has developed a new type of lightning protection carbon cloth structure (MKY), which consists of two layers of carbon cloth: one layer is 0° with a lightning protection nano coating (МЗП) And 45° woven carbon cloth, the other layer is unidirectional ordinary carbon cloth.
1. The application of carbon fiber composite materials in aircraft bodies continues to increase. The good mechanical properties of carbon fiber composite materials and the ever-decreasing production costs have promoted the continuous increase of the application of the material in aircraft. This trend can be reflected in military and civil aircraft in recent years;
2. New composite materials with multiple functions are the future development direction. In order to meet the high-performance requirements of a new generation of advanced aircraft, composite materials have changed from structural materials that simply met the mechanical performance requirements of strength, hardness, toughness, and plasticity to those with excellent electrical, magnetic, optical, thermal, sound, and force properties. The development of multifunctional materials, such as wave-transmitting composite materials, wave-absorbing composite materials, infrared sensitive composite materials, shock-absorbing composite materials, etc.
