A study on the optimal design of UAM composite fuselage structure based on ceramic fiber-reinforced composites

This study investigated the applicability of ceramic-fiber-reinforced composites composed of ceramic fibers and polymer resin to the side fuselage structure of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles through big-data processing and AI-based correlation analysis. To enhance productivity and ensure consistent quality, an automated manufacturing process based on intermediate material production was developed that effectively minimized quality variations caused by manual operations. The relationships between the key manufacturing variables — fiber type, weave pattern, resin content and molding parameters such as temperature, pressure and time — and the resulting mechanical properties were systematically analyzed. A total of 144 experimental conditions and 2,880 mechanical property datasets were processed using AI-based models, revealing that basalt fiber-reinforced composites exhibited superior mechanical performance compared to glass fiber-reinforced composites. The resin content and molding pressure were identified as the dominant factors influencing the composite strength. The optimized ceramic fiber-reinforced composites were applied to a UAM fuselage structure, and finite element analysis demonstrated a weight reduction exceeding 25% compared to conventional aluminum alloys. With a 1[Formula: see text]mm honeycomb core, the weight was comparable to that of the carbon fiber-reinforced composites. These results highlight the potential of ceramic fiber-reinforced composites as lightweight and cost-effective materials for advanced UAM structural applications.