ASD Lab

Aerostructures

The aerostructures research theme covers all the aspects of airframe development from conceptual structural design to manufacturing and certification. In particular three different aerostructures topics are investigated as part of the ABS research vision:

• Structural Design, covering non conventional composite design, development of design and sizing tools for airframe configuration selection and assessment and concurrent design approaches for manufacturing, assembly and certification.
• Structural Optimisation, analysing optimisation strategies and optimal design methods to meet the airframe strength, stability, stiffness, damage tolerance, manufacturability, cost, serviceability requirements with lightweight efficient structures
• DT Virtual Certification, investigating aspects of virtual testing and certification by developing damage evolution simulation and prediction methods in the frameworks of damage mechanics, fracture mechanics, durability and DT performance assessment.

Details on selected research lines are given below.

1. Airframe structural optimisation
2. DT prediction models of crack development from manufacturing-induced defects
3. Virtual testing of aircraft structures
4. Fatigue crack development from manufacturing-induced defects in AM titanium components