Research
Structures and Materials
Research in the Structures and Materials group focuses on the development of techniques to manufacture and characterise lightweight structures and composite material systems, and mechanical models to predict and evaluate their structural performance.
The key aim is to achieve safe and reliable design for aerospace, automotive and other applications.
Activities we address include but are not limited to:
- Advanced composite material structures (monolithic, sandwich structures, 3D woven)
- Fracture mechanics (mixed-mode fracture, initiation and propagation)
- Mechanical performance of thin coatings (thermal barrier coating systems, adhesion of graphene membranes, spallation)
- Mechanical characterisation (tension, compression, in-plane and interlaminar shear and flexure)
- Out-of-autoclave manufacture
- Finite element method and stress analysis
- Digital image correlation
- Thermal stress analysis
- Pulse-phase thermography
- Fatigue testing
- Quasi-static and impact testing
- Smart structures and structural health monitoring
- Buckling, post-buckling and vibration of composite panels and beams
- Damage characterisation (destructive and non-destructive methods, including C-scanning and X-ray)
