PhD Studentship: Sensing System Development for Aviation

Summary:

Applications are invited for a 4-year PhD studentship within the new established EPSRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training in Sensing, Processing, and AI for Defence and Security (SPADS). The program involves both a PhD research project and integrated studies as part of a cohort of like-minded students. The integrated studies will include advanced courses and bespoke training events such as summer schools, specialised theme meetings, and innovation and commercialisation sandpits.

Description:

Composite materials are used in prime and secondary applications such as aerospace, renewable energy, marine and automotive. Their intensive use exposes them to various external loads through their lifecycle. One of the most frequent catastrophic failures during the service life of a composite structure can be occurred with vibrations and impacts. In-situ damage systems for damage detection cam be used for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). The methods include either local, global or combined responses. The system measures displacement, acceleration or inclination by using various types of contact sensors such as strain gauges, accelerometer, piezoelectric sensors etc. However, in some cases there are economic and practical issues such as the installation of wires in the composite structure that may lead to deterioration of the mechanical properties. The need for in-situ damage detection and localization due to either static or dynamic indentation has increased the interest in multifunctional materials and structures.

The proposed project will develop smart sensors in composite materials that can detect impact damage for aviation.  To this end, the project aligns to research theme beyond CMOS hardware, and to some extent sensor signal processing and autonomous sensing platforms.  The aim of this PhD is the development of continuous embedded sensors that localize and detect impact damage in composite structures.

Objectives:

• Study and fabrication of compatible sensors with common composite materials;
• Development of composite materials with the embedded sensing system and determination of the damage location from signal processing;
• Perform impact characterization of the manufactured composites with sensors and localize the damage with signal processing;
• Dissemination and exploitation activities.