Chapter 6

Advanced polymer composite propeller

blades
Mike Burden, Roy McCarthy and Brian Wiggins

Introduction
The major advantages of carbon bre composites are their high specic stiness, strength and excellent fatigue resistance when compared with metallic
alloys [2, 3]. Comparative data for materials are shown in table 6.1. These
properties give rise to the principal drivers for the use of composites in
aircraft components, which are (a) improved performance resulting from
the ability to optimize component shape, form and mechanical properties
and (b) reduced weight which improves the eciency of the component
and aircraft and allows an increased payload or range for the aircraft.
For some applications composites can also give cost reduction both in
initial cost and cost of ownership (e.g. when replacing expensive alloys
such as titanium or when the component is structurally complex or unidirectionally loaded). At present, carbon bre composite components are
generally more expensive than their metallic counterparts because of the high
cost of the carbon bre. The majority of aerospace carbon bre composite
components are manufactured using a pre-preg process in which the bre,
already pre-coated with resin, is formed in tooling under heat and pressure.
This manufacturing route uses relatively expensive raw material as shown in
table 6.1, which indicates the price of pre-preg bre, compared with aluminium and titanium alloy forgings. Whilst the military aerospace market
will often accept a higher component price to obtain improved performance,
at the present time the major driver in the civil aerospace market is cost
reduction. The drive to improve material properties has tended to produce
more expensive bres and resin. The high modulus or high strength carbon
bres are three to ve times more expensive than the normal aerospace
bres. The new single component resins RTM6 and PR500 are four to ve

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Table 6.1. Comparative materials properties and costs for a range of potential propellor
blade materials.

Carbon bre epoxy:

UD Pre-pregc
UD RTMd
Aluminium alloy
Titanium alloy 6AL 4V

Youngs Tensile
Density modulus strength
(g/cm3 ) (GPa)
(MPa)

Specic
modulus
(GPa)

Specic
tensile
strength
(MPa)

Material
cost
(/kg)

1.5
1.5
2.8
4.4

87
87
26
24

1167
1100
168
227

5090a
1540a
1015b
2540b

130
130
74
106

1750
1650
470
1000

Fibre and resin cost-no processing.

Forging.
c
60% volume fraction carbon bre.
d
57% volume fraction carbon bre.
b

times more expensive than the established two-part epoxy resins. New bre
and resin systems are discussed further in chapters 13, 14 and 15.
Due to these higher costs, composites are nding it dicult to replace
metals on civil aircraft and the focus on technical development is changing
to nd cheaper methods of manufacture with less emphasis on improving
properties. There has, therefore, been a large amount of interest recently in
resin transfer moulding (RTM) and similar processes because of the lower
raw material costs associated with these manufacturing routes, as shown in
table 6.1.

Background
The propeller blade is in many ways a very suitable application for carbon
bre composites. The rst generation of propeller driven aircraft used
blades made from the natural composite, wood. After the Second World
War, this construction was mostly replaced by aluminium alloys as higher
thrusts and forces were required. In the 1960s, Dowty began designing and
manufacturing glass and carbon bre polymer composite propeller blades,
initially for hovercraft applications and then aircraft. Today, nearly all the
large propellers for new aircraft have carbon bre blades, as shown in gures
6.1 and 6.2.
Ideally, the blade should be as light as possible to minimize weight and
reduce centrifugal loading on other parts of the propeller such as the hub and
blade bearings, which can then also be lighter. Carbon bre composites are
ideally suited to blade manufacture since blades must have high specic
strength and stiness. The centrifugal force and aerodynamic loading on a

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Figure 6.1. Lockheed Hercules C-130J with composite blades.

blade produces mainly unidirectional stresses parallel to its axis, which again
favours a bre reinforced composite construction. Signicant vibratory
aerodynamic bending moments are also present, caused by the propeller
disc acting at an angle to the airow. A propeller is in eect a very good rotating fatigue machine. The blade material must therefore have good specic
fatigue strength. Carbon bre composites have excellent fatigue properties,
although these do vary depending on the bre lay-up and loading patterns.
As a result of the vibratory excitation, the blade has to be designed in such
a way as to ensure that no natural frequencies are excited in the propeller

Figure 6.2. Composite blades.

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running range. Composites allow the lay-up and bres to be tailored to avoid
harmful resonance conditions without signicantly impacting the strength or
weight of the blades. In addition to the structural requirements of the blade
there is an environmental requirement to resist erosion from stones and grit.
Aluminium alloy blades have to be dressed frequently to remove notches
which can signicantly reduce fatigue life. Composite blades, however,
when suitably treated, require little maintenance, are easy to repair and
last signicantly longer than metal blades. For example, aluminium alloy
aircraft blades generally are signicantly worn after only 10 000 ight
hours whilst composite blades can last more than three times longer. The
cost of ownership of the composite blades is therefore lower and life cycle
costs of running turboprops can be signicantly reduced.

Blade design
The outside prole of a propeller blade is dened primarily by aerodynamic
and acoustic requirements with the need to optimize cruise eciency, take-o
thrust and noise. Whilst metal propeller blades are solid, composite manufacturing techniques allow sandwich structures or hollow box structures to
be produced with little extra diculty. These constructions can reduce the
weight of a composite blade compared with a solid structure and optimize
the benet of the composite material and manufacturing techniques. For a
given loading the blade structure is designed to optimize the weight whilst

Figure 6.3. Composite blade construction.

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Figure 6.4. Blade root construction.

maintaining an acceptable level of strain in the composite. The composite

construction used by Dowty for propeller blades has developed over 30
years and is shown in gure 6.3.
The main load-carrying members are spars consisting of layers of
mainly unidirectional carbon bre material designed to resist the centrifugal
and bending loads on the blade. These spars extend from the root to the tip
of the blade, reducing in thickness towards the tip where the loads are
reduced. The outer shell consists of bres oriented at
458 to the blade
axis. This provides the torsional strength and stiness to the blade and
also gives improved impact resistance. The structural foam core provides
a method of transferring shear stress between the two composite spar
beams. The arrangement of the composite to metal root is illustrated in
gure 6.4. The carbon spars, which are basically at planks, in the blade
aerofoil go through a transition to join together to form a cylinder. This
cylindrical spar is connected to the metal outer sleeve through a mechanical wedge system by inserting glass bre wedges between the layers of
carbon bre. The introduction of an inner sleeve totally encloses the resulting annular wedge. This design of blade retention has an outstanding
safety record with no blade losses over 20 years of service and 75 million
ying hours. An important feature of the composite construction is an
aluminium lightning braid which runs both on the pitch face and
camber face from the blade tip to the metal outer sleeve giving lightning
protection.

Blade manufacture by resin transfer moulding

When Dowty initially became interested in producing composite propeller
blades, it investigated and experimented with both pre-preg and resin

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Table 6.2. Advantages of resin transfer moulding (RTM) compared with pre-peg manufacturing routes.
RTM

Pre-preg

Low material cost

Minimal material storage problem

High material cost (2  RTM)

Material has short life at room temperature
and must be stored in a freezer
For parts with accurate thickness control
matched metal moulds and computer
controlled presses are required
Dicult to mould complex parts in one shot

Close control on part thickness and bre

content
Complex parts can be moulded in one shot

transfer moulding manufacturing processes. Composite blades were

manufactured by both methods so that the relative advantages and disadvantages could be assessed. Resin transfer moulding was selected as being the
best route for these complex constructions. This process has been continually
developed over many years since 1967 into a very eective production
method for structurally loaded carbon bre composite components. The
advantages over the competing pre-preg manufacturing route are shown in
table 6.2.
In the resin transfer moulding process dry bre preforms are injected
with resin. Considerable eort has been put into methods of dry bre reinforcement preform assembly to ensure bres are placed and stay in the orientation and position specied. Fibres and fabric layers are held together with
powder binder. A number of the carbon bre layers are built-up in a
shaped former, and then consolidated under heat and pressure to produce
a rigid preform which can be handled easily, as shown in gure 6.5. These
preforms are inserted into the blade mould and a core of low density polyurethane foam is formed in-situ, as shown in gure 6.6. The remaining outer

458 bre layers in the blade skin are produced using a braiding machine,
as shown in gure 6.7. The braiding process [4] has a number of advantages
compared with normal fabric assembly or alternative methods. It uses one of
the cheapest forms of carbon bre available and is able to lay down 458
oriented bres at a very rapid rate producing a semi-woven structure
which locks on to the blade shape. The required properties can be tailored
by using mixtures of bres, e.g. carbon and glass. The woven structure has
a high impact resistance and the quality is more consistent than that
produced by hand assembly. Outer metal root sleeve and glass cloth
wedges are assembled together with edge reinforcement layers and aluminium braid lightning protection. The complete blade assembly is then
placed in the blade mould for resin transfer moulding, as shown in gure 6.8.
The resin transfer moulding process is carried out with the blade mould
mounted in a vertical position with the blade root uppermost. The mould is

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Figure 6.5. Blade preform.

heated to reduce resin viscosity and provide a satisfactory curing period. It is

sealed to enable a vacuum to be applied to the preform at the top. The resin
feed is at the base of the mould. The epoxy resin used by Dowty has been
selected because of its low cost, excellent mechanical properties, low viscosity

Figure 6.6. Preform after foam injection.

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Figure 6.7. Braiding process.

and satisfactory life at elevated process temperatures. It is pumped at a

controlled rate into the mould. After curing for a suitable period the blade
is removed from the mould and deashed, and the root assembly is completed.
Satisfactory wetting of the bres and minimum porosity are dependent on the
quality of the resin in the preform, correct feed method and tooling, and
consistent vacuum and feed rate. Control of these parameters at Dowty
enables resin transfer moulding composites to be manufactured with high

Figure 6.8. Preform and resin transfer mould.

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bre volume fractions (up to 65%) and void contents of less than 1%. Because
of the critical application, each blade produced is examined using ultrasonics
and radiography to ensure that the major types of defects in composite
structures, such as porosity, disbond and localized bre waviness (wrinkles),
are minimized to meet the required standards.
To provide wear and erosion resistance the blade is spray coated all over
with polyurethane elastomer. Replaceable nickel electroform leading edge
guards and de-icing boots are bonded in position to complete the structure.

Blade testing and fatigue issues

Carbon bre composite structures are currently designed with very conservative margins, another factor reducing their competitive position relative
to metals. Whilst a propeller blade is an excellent example of a suitable
application for carbon bre composites it also illustrates that there is still
further potential if design rules and basic understanding can be improved.
A propeller blade has to satisfy a number of design criteria which then
have to be validated by test for certication. These include impact, lightning
strike, environmental resistance, static strength and fatigue. The fundamental design criterion for a propeller blade is fatigue life. The initial
design predictions of operating stresses and strains within a blade have to
be conrmed by extensive ight testing with a strain-gauged propeller.
From these results a worst case fatigue spectrum can be generated for the

Figure 6.9. Fatigue data.

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strains on a propeller blade for the life of an aircraft. Extensive fatigue testing
is carried out on coupons, sections of blade, and on full blades, from which S/N
curves and Goodman diagrams can be determined. A fatigue life assessment
can then be made for the blade. Unfortunately, design tools for fatigue life
assessment of composites are not entirely satisfactory [5, 6]. As a result signicant safety factors are applied when determining life. Figure 6.9 illustrates this
point, showing that the failure S/N curve for the blade is signicantly above the
worst case fatigue spectrum for the aircraft.
Figure 6.9 also shows another feature of composites which complicates
the design process. The S/N curves generated for coupons are dierent from
those of full size blades. This scale eect for composites has been investigated
previously [7], as shown in gure 6.10, but is not fully understood. As a result,
at the present time, extensive full scale testing on components is necessary.
To reduce development time and cost, better design tools are required to
determine the eect of lay-up on compressive strength and compressive
fatigue. Very rarely is it possible to use a completely unidirectional structure,
and a proportion of layers with other orientations will be required. Predicting
the eect of these layers on compressive strength and fatigue is complex, and
testing is invariably required. Whilst still very good compared with metals,
the compressive strength and compressive fatigue properties of carbon
bre composites are well below the equivalent tensile properties. The
development of hollow carbon bres of larger diameter should lead to
improved compressive properties, but probably at increased cost, which
would be against current market drivers.

Figure 6.10. Scaling eect under exural loading taken from reference [7].

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To improve the competitiveness of composite components in the

future, accurate predictive design tools are necessary to reduce design and
development costs relative to metals.

Future developments in polymer composite processing

In the UK, both component manufacturers and material suppliers are
working on collaborative programmes to assess the economic and structural
benets that may be obtained using the resin transfer moulding process and
its variants, as compared with the autoclave/press moulding of pre-pregs and
metallic manufacture. The resin transfer moulding method of processing uses
bre and resin materials in the lowest cost form which should give it the
potential to be the most economic route for many applications. As well as
resin transfer moulding there are a number of similar dry fabric processes
being developed which show potential for the future. These are SCRIMP,
RIFT and RFI.
SCRIMP is Seemann Composites resin infusion moulding process,
developed in the United States by Seemann Composites. This technique
uses a one sided tool on to which dry reinforcement is laid and then covered
with a special resin transfer medium before being sealed in a vacuum bag.
Vacuum is applied and resin is distributed all over the component. This is
an excellent method for large-area components where a one sided nish is
acceptable and some variations in thickness can be tolerated.
RIFT [8] is resin infusion under exible tooling. This is a variation
on SCRIMP using a dierent resin transfer medium, with very similar
results.
RFI is resin lm infusion, a combination of resin transfer moulding and
pre-preg autoclave techniques using a one sided tool on to which layers of dry
reinforcement are laid and interleaved with resin lm in a part cured condition. Alternatively, a thick resin lm may be applied on top of the complete
dry bre reinforcement stack. A vacuum bag is tted to which vacuum and
heat are applied to force the resin into the reinforcement. Autoclave pressure
may also be applied to achieve high bre volume fraction. This process
ensures resin is available in dicult areas of the moulding. Resin lms are
costly, which limits the economics of the process.
The key to manufacturing cost-eective structural parts by resin transfer
moulding or one of the other similar variants of this process described above
is the preforming of the reinforcing bres into optimum directions for
component loading and holding them in these positions during resin injection. Collaborative programmes are under way with universities and major
aerospace companies to develop methods of automated bre placement
and triaxial braiding to produce net shape preforms at minimum cost.
Resin and fabric suppliers are also involved to optimize methods for binding

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the reinforcement fabrics during cutting and assembly to produce rigid

preforms of near-net shape prior to resin injection.

Summary
At the present time the major driver in the civil aerospace market is cost
reduction. The challenge for material and processing development is to
provide the full benets of composites at economically viable prices. The
focus of technical development is changing to nd cheaper methods of manufacture with less emphasis on improving properties. Resin transfer moulding
or one of the other similar dry fabric processes have the potential for being
the most economic route for many applications. A better understanding of
composites is also required to improve the predictive design tools reducing
the amount of development and testing required for structurally demanding
components.

References
[1] McCarthy R F J, Haines G H and Newley R A 1994 Composites Manufacturing 5(2)
8393
[2] Hancox N L and Mayer R M 1994 Design Data for Reinforced Plastics (London:
Chapman & Hall)
[3] Aluminium Federation 1993 The Properties of Aluminium and its Alloys
[4] McCarthy R F J 1990 Plastics Metals Ceramics 11th International SAMPE Conference,
Basel 29-31.
[5] Reinfronider K L 1991 Fatigue of Composite Materials, vol. 4, Composite Materials
(Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers BV)
[6] Curtis P T 1998, Conference Designing Cost Eective Components
[7] Jackson K E, Kellas S and Morton J 1992 J. Composite Materials 26(18) 26742705
[8] Williams C, Summerscales J and Grove S 1996 Composites Part A, 27A 517524

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