In the pursuit of weight reduction, future structures will have to be multifunctional in the sense that a single structure fulfils various objectives and therefore it is not necessary to develop independent structures for each of the functions required by the aircraft (acoustic and vibration attenuation, mechanical properties, electrical conductivity, etc.). Therefore multifunctional laminates need to be developed and compared with current structural solutions to quantify the improvement. Within the scope of this proposal, the main goals that were combined into a multifunctional laminate were: acoustics, erosion, lightning protection (and electrical conductivity) and impact damage tolerance. Moreover, the mechanical properties of the proposed solutions will have to be evaluated to ensure that they are similar (and do not suffer a considerable reduction) with respect to the properties of the baseline configuration of the laminate before the multifunctional elements are added to it.

Once an optimum set of possible multifunctional laminate concepts had been developed and its properties tested, the research must ensure that the performance is kept when the size of the part is scaled up to full scale for the future industrial application.