Assessment of Composite Waste Disposal in Aerospace Industries

Composite materials are playing a vital role in aerospace industries due to its attractive thermal, mechanical and environmental properties. Especially, in aerospace applications where the weight factor is a concern, it offers good strength-to-weight ratio over metals, thus making a viable alternative. Apart from this, it gives high fatigue strength, light weight, increased corrosion resistance, improved fire resistance and also provides an ability to manufacture complex shapes. The steady increase in the use of Glass fiber/ carbon fiber composites has brought tremendous changes in aerospace industries. The diversified application of composite materials motivated the scientists to use in different fields where its predominant properties have given value addition to the product. However, it generates waste composite material during manufacturing as well as end of life. The composites waste should be collected, segregated and safely disposed as per the environmental legislation available in this country. Further, the waste generated by aerospace (defence& space) industry is minimum compared to the composite waste generated by the commercial industries. Composite waste disposal is relatively new area in India which is necessary to discuss for protecting the environment. Hence, selection of suitable environmental friendly as well as cost effective composite disposal method is necessary at this stage for aero space industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to assess the existing disposal methods in the world and suggest suitable disposal method which is applicable for aerospace Industries.