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Could kevlar be better for shear webs than carbon or glass . . . ?

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raymondbird

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2008
Messages
246
Location
Belleville, Ontario Canada
Hello All,

Been studying Dr Mark Drela's spar design method. Anyone have any thoughts on it? Scaled up to full size of course and with maybe vertical grain pine between caps of pultruded carbon rods instead of balsa.

He is saying the compression side of the +- 45 shear web buckles very early but the tension (much stronger) fibers can pull to the end against the immensely strong vertical grain wood, which makes for a very strong spar.

Makes sense to me and then wouldn't Kevlar be superior. More resistant to cutting where it is layed up over the sharp edge of the spar caps and is unbeatable in tension is it not . . . ?

Cheers,
Ray
 

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