Simulation and Analysis of Damage for Failure Prediction on Advanced Composite Structures subjected to Impact Loading

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The development of new advanced composite materials offers plenty of possibilities to implement these new structures into highly strained components and applications.

For example, fuselage made of GLARE (hybrid laminate compounded by alternated glass fibre plies and aluminium layers; used in Airbus A380 fuselage) or hybrid CRF and titanium aircraft engine blades.

The design certification is strongly depending on the numerical simulations in order to reduce to a minimum the certification costs. Aircraft composites failure is characterized by different damage modes such as fibre kinking, fibre rupture, matrix cracking or delamination, which makes challenging to calculate an exact prediction of the failure process. However, novel available techniques are promising for the solution of such problems.

This investigation will help you to develop a combination of modelling and simulation skills in order to research the prediction of failure on modern composite structures. This research will benefit from excellent computing facilities, expertise in computer-aided engineering (CA2M lab), the available experimental facilities including mechanical testing and links with industry and with our Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) through our collaborative work.