Projects
Current Projects
2024-2028 LiT H2Crash
Objectives of the H2Crash project
Energy transition in aviation, design of hydrogen-powered aircraft, effects of crashworthiness and damage tolerance.
Project done in collaboration with John-Alan Pascoe and Daniël Peeters.
My role in the H2Crash
I am the project coordinator, and main supervisor of the PhD researcher working on the work package related to crashworthiness.
2021-2025 Embraer ATED
Objectives of the Embraer ATED project
Develop and improve state-of-the-art methods for wing optimization considering post-buckling and aeroelastic constraints.
Project done in collaboration with Roeland de Breuker and Embraer.
Objectives of the Smart Flying-V
Explore morphing solutions and boundary layer ingestion technologies for improved controllability and aerodynamic efficiency of the Flying-V concept, and explore certifiable hydrogen storage solutions and its integration to the primary structures.
Morphing solutions are evaluated with advanced aeroservoelasticity techniques, led by Sherry Wang, also with the involvement of Roeland de Breuker.
Hydrogen storage solutions, led by Julien van Campen.
Design for crashworthiness is led by Saullo G. P. Castro in collaboration with René Alderliesten.
Boundary layer ingestion, led by Roelof Vos, is achieved with optimal placement of the engines, where the optimal integration with the primary structure is also addressed.
My colleagues Arvind Rao, Jos Sinke and Otto Bergsma are also closely involved in this project.
My role in the Smart Flying-V
I am the project coordinator, and deputy coordinator is my colleague Sherry Wang. Also, I am the main supervisor for the PhD who will work on design for crashworthiness, and I am closely involved in all tasks related to the integration of technologies and design/analysis of the primary structures of the Flying-V.
2021-2026 ENLIGHTEN - Enabling Integrated Lightweight Structures
Objectives of the ENLIGHTEN
In this video from "NWO Wetenschap" you can better understand the motivation behind the Enlighten project:
This LinkedIn post of my colleague Prof. Clemens Dransfeld is also a good summary:
My role in the ENLIGHTEN
I am the main supervisor of the PhD leading work package 1.2b, on fluid-structure methods used to predict micro-structural changes that occur during thermoplastic fusion processes.
2020-2021 Variable-angle filament-wound cylinders
Novel designs named variable-angle filament-wound (VAFW) cylinders are proposed, combining the tailoring capabilities of variable stiffness structures with very efficient manufacturing possibilities achieved with filament winding.
Project done in collaboration with José Humberto Almeida Jr.
Featured publications:
Castro, S. G. P., Almeida, J. H. S., Jr., St-Pierre, L., & Wang, Z. "Measuring geometric imperfections of variable-angle filament-wound cylinders with a simple digital image correlation setup". Composite Structures, 2021. 10.1016/j.compstruct.2021.114497
José Humberto S. Almeida Jr., Luc St-Pierre, Zhihua Wang, Marcelo L. Ribeiro, Volnei Tita, Sandro C. Amico, Saullo G. P. Castro. "Design, modeling, optimization, manufacturing and testing of variable-angle filament-wound cylinders". Composites Part B, 2021. 10.1016/j.compositesb.2021.109224
Zhihua Wang, José Humberto S. Almeida Jr., Luc St-Pierre, Zhonglai Wang, Saullo G. P. Castro. "Reliability-based buckling optimization with an accelerated Kriging metamodel for filament-wound variable angle tow composite cylinders". Composite Structures, Vol. 254, 2020. 10.1016/j.compstruct.2020.112821
Data sets:
Saullo G. P. Castro, & José Humberto S. Almeida Jr. (2021). VAFW cylinders 2020, S1, S2, S4, S8, DIC raw data (Version 2021-03-16) [Data set]. Zenodo. 10.5281/zenodo.4608398
Saullo G. P. Castro, & José Humberto S. Almeida Jr. (2021). VAFW cylinders 2020, S1, S2, S4, S8, stitched imperfections (Version 2021-03-04) [Data set]. Zenodo. 10.5281/zenodo.4581164
Former Projects
AETH2ERIA is a hydrogen-powered electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft designed during the final bachelors project within TU Delft's Design/Synthesis Exercise (DSE), April - June 2023. Please, check more details in the dedicated AETH2ERIA page.
Wigeon is a long-range eVTOL designed during the final bachelors project within TU Delft's Design/Synthesis Exercise (DSE), April - June 2021. Please, check more details in the dedicated Wigeon page.
2016-2018 Embraer's next generation fatigue solver and fatigue calculation process
I was the project leader, working on novel fatigue processes implemented to allow large-scale certification-level analyses and considerably improve the level of detail and automation in the fatigue calculations, therefore facilitating the development and certification activities.
2016-2018 Embraer's new stress analysis platform
I was the project leader, working on high-performance stress analysis methods for large-scale certification-level analyses. Novel concepts to describe any structural part in terms of simpler elements were developed and applied to achieve seamless integration between finite element analyses and certified stress analysis methods.
More details can be found in:
Rodrigo B. Maria, Marcus de F. Leal, Edgard Sousa Junior, Vinicius L. Lemos, Patrick M. Cardoso, Leonardo C. de Oliveira, Saullo G. P. Castro, Marcelo de L. Marcolin, Darshan Joshi. "Applications of SPDM in aircraft structural analysis at Embraer". Advanced Modeling and Simulation in Engineering Sciences, Vol. 6, Article number: 12, 2019. 10.1186/s40323-019-0136-9
Objective of DESICOS
"European Space industry demand for lighter and cheaper launcher transport systems. The proposed project DESICOS contributes to these aims by a new design approach for imperfection sensitive composite launcher structures, exploiting the worst imperfection idea efficiently: the Single Perturbation Load Approach. Currently, imperfection sensitive shell structures prone to buckling are designed according the NASA SP 8007 guideline using the conservative lower bound curve. The guideline dates from 1968, and the structural behaviour of composite material is not considered appropriately, in particular since the imperfection sensitivity of shells made from such materials depends on the lay-up design. The buckling loads of CFRP structures may vary by a factor of about 3 just by changing the lay-up. This is not considered in the NASA SP 8007, which allows designing only so called ""black metal"" structures. Here is a high need for a new precise and fast design approach for imperfection sensitive composite structures which allows significant reduction of structural weight and design cost. For most relevant architectures of cylindrical and conical launcher structures (monolithic, sandwich, isogrid - without and with holes) DESICOS will investigate a combined methodology from the Single Perturbation Load approach and a specific stochastic approach which guarantees an effective and robust design. A recent investigation demonstrated, that an axially loaded unstiffened cylinder, which is disturbed by a large enough single perturbation load, is leading directly to the design buckling load 45% higher compared with the respective NASA SP 8007 design. All results will be summarized in a handbook for the design of imperfection sensitive composite structures. The potential will be demonstrated within different industrially driven use cases."
My role in DESICOS
I worked as a research associate in DESICOS from Fev. 2012 to Fev. 2015. It was the project that paid for my PhD scholarship, so I am very grateful to the European research frameworks for that!
I started and led the development of DESICOS' plug-in for Abaqus, still actively developed.
Please, check my publications from 2012 to 2015, all related to DESICOS.