Boeing

Composite Stop Beam Design

This student team was provided with a generic/non-proprietary stop fitting shape representing one end of a passenger entry door stop beam. The student team was asked to create 3 stop beams using different composite manufacturing methods, which could include hand layup, chopped fiber, oriented fiber tows, 3D printed continuous carbon fibers, resin transfer molding, or similar. This student team was tasked with comparing the composite parts to an aluminum baseline part (that they fabricate). This student team worked to explore novel fabrication techniques for stop fittings and to compare fabrication techniques to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the fabrication techniques. This student team worked to test each part to failure and compare their results. The student team worked to provide a test report detailing their findings of which composite manufacturing technology provided the strongest stop beam element. The student team worked to compare the stop beam to an aluminum baseline part and to describe the pros and cons of each material system.