Welding and Joining of Materials for Advanced Aerospace Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Predictions of air traffic reveal that by the year 2050 the number of air passengers will have more than doubled. In order to make air traffic sustainable, fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions must be significantly reduced. Lightweight aerospace structures represent a promising way to achieve that. They are usually made of metallic and non-metallic materials, with good strength-to-weight ratio. The commonly used materials are high-strength aluminum and titanium alloys, stainless steels, high-strength steels, high-temperature nickel and cobalt superalloys, and various types of fiber-reinforced composites. These aerospace structures are often joined by welding, mechanical joining, adhesive bonding, or hybrid joining technologies, since similar and dissimilar metals and non-metals must be joined together to obtained the required structural component. However, the selection of proper materials and joining technologies with respect to cost efficiency, joint reliability, the weight of the structure, and joint strength efficiency (especially with high-cycle fatigue) is just one of the unique sets of challenges. To achieve the cleaner and sustainable production of such structures, an optimal use of energy, resources, and critical raw materials must be considered together with proper disassembly methods for optimal repair, replacement, and re-use of in-service components in high-tech applications. Often, joining can only be achieved using sophisticated modern welding and joining technologies, which must be thoroughly investigated and optimized for each specific component.

This Special Issue will cover new findings in the field of welding, mechanical joining, adhesive bonding, and hybrid joining of similar and dissimilar aerospace materials, additively manufactured parts, and hybrid manufactured parts. It will reveal new, crucial findings in the field of welding and joining technologies, weld microstructure, heat-affected zones, static and dynamic joint strength efficiency, in-service life predictions, and the disassembly of structures with respect to repair and reuse purposes. Manuscripts describing new experimental and theoretical studies on these fields are highly welcome in this Issue.

Dr. Damjan Klobcar
Dr. Uroš Trdan
Guest Editors

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