Description of the research and its implications

• The overall aim of DEFORM is to develop innovative and low-cost solutions to design multi-stable aerospace composite structures that can be easily manufactured and enable to perform high fatigue performance, supporting European Green Deal for the EU’s ambition of climate neutral by 2050. DEFORM will advance state-of-art of against-fatigue design, modelling and testing for multi-stable aerospace structures.​

More information: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101205

DAER main contributions

• Phase 1: Tailor non-uniform thermal stress distribution to create sequential buckling-driven multi-stability for stiffened aerospace composite structures that can perform three stable modes under varying load amplitudes. ​
• Phase 2: Implant buckling-mode switch analysis into a virtual-crack-closure-technique-based algorithm for efficient fatigue damage modelling, providing dataset to optimise a down-scaled demonstrator with extended fatigue life and increased fatigue damage resistance. ​
• Phase 3: Perform multi-field interactive damage diagnostics in real time to measure optical-acoustic mechanical properties at a structural level, under repetitive stable-mode switches.​

Funding body

European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship​

SDGs covered

#4 - Quality Education
#5 - Gender Equality
#9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
#13 - Climate Action