The proposal aims to develop structural design allowables for recycled carbon fibre reinforced polymer (rCFRP) composites targeting secondary and tertiary aeronautical structures, such as brackets, fairings, access panels, and interior fittings. The growing availability of recycled discontinuous carbon fibre — recovered from manufacturing offcuts and end-of-life thermoset composite airframe components — represents a significant untapped feedstock that is currently excluded from aerospace applications due to the absence of certified structural performance data. By conducting a systematic experimental programme covering static strength, fatigue life, fracture behaviour, and environmental conditioning under representative aeronautical temperature and humidity cycles, this project will generate the coupon-level and structural-element-level data required to establish B-basis design allowables in accordance with recognised aerospace qualification standards, including ASTM D3039, ASTM D3479, and FAA AC 20-107B.

Our research team brings consolidated experimental competence in the structural characterisation of aeronautical materials and components, with laboratory infrastructure specifically configured for the demands of aerospace qualification programmes. Our facilities support full stress and strain field measurement using digital image correlation (DIC) and conventional strain gauge instrumentation, modal analysis and structural dynamic identification under ambient and controlled thermal conditions, and fatigue testing of both coupon-level specimens and small structural assemblies under representative aeronautical load spectra. Environmental conditioning capabilities allow testing across a wide temperature range, enabling the assessment of material behaviour under the thermal cycling conditions characteristic of aircraft service life. The team has direct experience with thermoplastic and thermoset composite materials in aeronautical applications, including hands-on familiarity with woven carbon fabric systems and maintains active collaboration with the Brazilian aeronautical industry, providing an established pathway for the validation and transfer of research outcomes to an industrial context.