Abstract—The aviation sector is looking to replace
conventional metals for aircraft doors with composite materials
due to the latter’s potentially favorable combination of
mechanical properties and low weight. However, little is known
about the environmental impacts and economic costs associated
with the production of such composite doors. This study
conducts a Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing on an
example composite aircraft door to quantify its environmental
and economic impacts. In addition, uncertainty analysis has
been performed to enhance the quality of the assessment.
Index Terms—Life Cycle Costing, Life Cycle Assessment,
composite, aircraft door, Monte Carlo simulation
Minghui Wu is with the Centre for Environment and Sustainability,
University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK; National Structural
Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC), TWI Ltd., Granta Park, Great Abington,
Cambridge, CB21 6AL, UK.
Jhuma Sadhukhan, Richard Murphy, Ujjwal Bharadwaj, and Xiaofei Cui
are with the Centre for Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey,
Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK. E-mail: j.sadhukhan@surrey.ac.uk (J.S.);
rj.murphy@surrey.ac.uk (R.M.); ujjwal.bharadwaj@twi.co.uk (U.B.);
xiaofei.cui@twi.co.uk (X.C.)
*Correspondence: minghui.wu@surrey.ac.uk (M.W.)
[PDF]
Cite: Minghui Wu, Jhuma Sadhukhan, Richard Murphy, Ujjwal Bharadwaj, and Xiaofei Cui, "Assessing the Life Cycle Environmental Performance and Economic Costs of Composite Materials in Certain Aircraft Structure," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 37-40, 2023.
