Research Areas

Composite Materials:

Lightweight fibre-reinforced polymer composites, particularly carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRPs) and glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRPs), have transformed modern aerospace engineering by offering an excellent combination of high specific strength, stiffness and corrosion resistance. Despite these advantages, prolonged exposure to cyclic loading and aggressive environmental conditions can progressively degrade their structural integrity, thereby limiting their service life.

Our research focuses on enhancing the fatigue performance and long-term durability of composite materials through graphene hybridization. Graphene, owing to its exceptional mechanical and multifunctional properties, presents significant potential for improving the damage tolerance and fatigue resistance of advanced composites. Current research investigates the optimum level of graphene incorporation in CFRP and GFRP laminates and evaluates its effectiveness under long-term weathering conditions using both experimental characterization and computational modelling. The outcomes of this research contribute to the development of next-generation aerospace composites with enhanced reliability, extended service life and reduced maintenance requirements.

Auxetic Structures:

Auxetic structures represent an emerging class of architected materials characterized by a negative Poisson's ratio, enabling superior energy absorption, enhanced indentation resistance and improved mechanical performance compared with conventional cellular materials. Their unique deformation mechanisms make them highly attractive for lightweight, impact-resistant and crashworthy engineering applications.

Our research group is engaged in the design and development of novel auxetic architectures for advanced structural applications. The research integrates computational modelling, structural optimization, additive manufacturing and experimental validation to develop high-performance auxetic systems with superior mechanical efficiency and crashworthiness. Ongoing efforts focus on the development of innovative multi-layer auxetic structures for aerospace, automotive and defence applications, with the objective of achieving lightweight designs without compromising structural integrity and impact resistance.

Computational Modelling:

Accurate prediction of structural failure is essential for ensuring the safety, reliability and longevity of engineering systems operating under complex loading conditions. Our research group develops advanced computational modelling frameworks to simulate damage evolution, fracture and structural failure in engineering materials with high accuracy and computational efficiency.

The research primarily focuses on gradient damage and phase-field modelling approaches for predicting crack initiation, propagation and fatigue failure in metals, composite materials and other advanced engineering materials subjected to mechanical, thermo-mechanical and cyclic loading. To improve computational efficiency, our focus is on developing adavanced adaptive mesh refinement strategies that automatically refine the computational domain in regions of evolving damage while maintaining coarser discretization elsewhere. These computational tools are being implemented on both commercial and open-source finite element platforms, to enable accurate, scalable, and efficient fracture simulations. These developed methodologies support the design and optimization of safer, more durable and high-performance structures for aerospace, automotive, energy and defence applications.

Page updated

Report abuse