Light Weight Structures Research Sub-Group
The research activities of the group are essentially those associated with the design of optimised lightweight metal and composite material structural systems for aerospace and automotive applications.
The group has considerable strength and experience in the field of thin-walled metal and composite material structures with regard to analysis, numerical simulation, novel design, test and manufacture.
The research areas:
- Thin-Walled Metal and Composite Structural Systems
- Lightweight Aerospace and Automotive Structural Components
- Buckling and Post-Buckling Behaviour of Thin-Walled Structures
- Elasto-Plastic Collapse of Metallic Construction
- Impact Mechanics of Metal and Composite Structures
- Damage Tolerance in Composite Structures
- Dynamic Response of Thin-walled Structures
- Design for Impact and Crashworthiness
- Composite Material Failure Mechanics
- Delamination and Failure Propagation in Laminated Composites
- Damage Initiation and Growth in Composites
- Thermoelastic Stress Analysis
- Smart Sensing-Adaptive Structures
- Finite Element and Finite Strip Numerical Modelling
- Manufacturing and Testing of Composite Structures
- Autoclave Manufacture
- Laminated Composite Structural Systems
- Out of Autoclave Manufacture
- Low cost composites manufacturing - Vacuum Infusion (VI) and Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM)
- Composite Structures from Multi-Architecture Pre-Form Systems