Substituting Ti-64 with Aa2099 as Material of a Commercial Aircraft Pylon

The aircraft industry is striving to reduce the weight of aircraft to save fuel and hence reduce total cost. New alloys and composites with properties such as low weight and high strength are continuously developed. Titanium alloys have the best strength-to-weight ratio among metals which makes them very suitable for aircraft applications. Ti-64 is the most common Titanium alloy used in aircraft. AA2099 is a 3rd generation Al-Li alloy and has the lowest density among all Aluminium alloys making it very attractive for aircraft applications. Pylons of commercial aircraft are currently made primarily with Ti-64 and this study focused on the replacement of Ti-64 with AA2099. Loading conditions, operating temperature, corrosion resistance, manufacturability and recyclability of the pylon were analysed of both Ti-64 and AA2099. Three critical scenarios were chosen for the loading conditions of the pylon. These were simulated using finite element analysis first using Ti-64 and then AA2099. From the results, it is evident that using AA2099 as the material of the pylon instead of Ti-64 offered weight savings. The operating temperature, manufacturability and recyclability also showed advantages when using AA2099 whereas corrosion factors favoured Ti-64, since AA2099 was found to be very prone to galvanic corrosion.