ABSTRACT
Polymer-based materials are being developed and widely applied in aerospace structures due to their outstanding physical, chemical, and mechanical performances over their metal and alloy counterparts, such as lightweight, low coef™cient of thermal expansion (CTE) in a wide temperature range, ultraviolet (UV) and chemical resistance, high-speci™c strength and speci™c stiffness, and so on (Baker et al. 2004). The revolutionary design and application of advanced carbon-™ber-reinforced plastics (CFRPs) have been realized in Boeing 787 Dreamliner with airframe consisting of 50% carbon ™ber composite by weight (Wagner and Norris 2009). However, the composites story just starts after the delivery of Boeing 787 to its ™rst customer All Nippon Airways. The maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) will be the most challenging issues for the composite structures during the whole service life of the Dreamliner. In addition to the structural composites, functional polymers and related composites are also widely used in aerospace engineering, such as abrasionresistant coating, anti-icing coating, impact-resistant sandwich structures, and so on.
