Engineers at the US Army Research Laboratory and the University of Maryland have recently announced a technology that will make composites harder and stronger as needed under UV light. This on-demand control of the mechanical behavior of composite materials offers many new capabilities for the design, performance and maintenance of future military rotorcraft.
Dr. Frank Gardea, R&D engineer at the US Army Research Laboratory, said the project focused on the study of the control of intermolecular interactions, causing them to change at the nanoscale, leading to visible changes at larger scales.
