Smart Manufacturing of Smart Aircraft Skins

Principal Investigator
Rehan Umer
Department
Aerospace Engineering
Focus Area
Aerospace
Smart Manufacturing of Smart Aircraft Skins

This research focuses on utilizing a low-cost sensing network created using novel heterogeneous 2D materials to monitor key manufacturing parameters and in-service health of a composite structure. This network of sensors will be embedded in the composite material to endow built-in sensing and intelligence capabilities to an aircraft skin. Using this approach, important manufacturing parameters including the degree of in-situ compaction, the vacuum level, the extent of mold-filling, the gelation point, and the degree of cure can be monitored without the use of expensive array of sensors. In addition, the long-term goal is to utilize this low-cost sensing network to create smart structures for in-service structural health monitoring, such as identifying the severity and location of barely visible impact damage (BVID), EMI shielding, lightning strike protection, and conferring anti/de-icing capabilities to the smart skins. The use of this novel sensing technology will be a step closer to achieving COMPOSITES 4.0.

Smart Manufacturing of Smart Aircraft Skins