J. Carlos Fernández-Toribio
There is a clear evidence that composites are an increasing field of interest. Thus, the demand for composites end products has reached 22.2$ billion in 2015 . This is due to their low weight and high mechanical resistance. Therefore, lighter structural parts can be manufactured. For that reason, 50 % of the weight of the last generation of planes, such as Boeing 787 or Airbus A382 and A350, are made of composites. However, this high market size does not fit an industry which is not properly automatized and whose fabrication methods are highly inefficient. Moreover, composites show complex failure mechanisms. Those lead to the use of expensive and time consuming inspection methods. This is very inconvenient in areas where safety is a key, such as aeronautics.
