Aerospace structures

Lightweight structures have gained great importance since the need for energy efficiency is constantly growing in many engineering applications. While improving traditional metal technology becomes increasingly difficult, fibre reinforced plastics, i.e. polymeric composites, allow a renaissance of lightweight construction that helps to achieve the performance targets set by an ever more demanding industry. The basis of composite product development is aimed traditionally at aerospace use; however, other application fields such as wind energy, transport and storage as well as automotive, are increasingly being developed. Now more than ever, there is a huge push for aircraft to be ‘greener’, and one way of achieving this is to reduce weight. Aims to reduce weight have resulted in the introduction and wide application of composite materials into the aircraft structure. Hence, engineers and scientists working in this area must use sophisticated modeling and experimental techniques and advanced materials in order to come up with designs that excel in their performance. This is the main objective of the Aerospace Structure Research Group at ITA (ASRG-ITA).