Structures & Materials

Light, strong and durable airframes. Carrying loads with minimum weight: bending, torsion and buckling, thin-walled semi-monocoque structures, aerospace alloys and composites, additive manufacturing, fatigue, damage tolerance and aeroelasticity.

• Bending — Bending creates tension on one side of a beam and compression on the other. Learn the flexure formula σ = My/I, neutral axis, section modulus, beam selection and combined bending and axial load.
• Torsion — Torsion is twisting. Learn shear stress τ = Tr/J, angle of twist θ = TL/GJ, power transmission P = Tω, solid vs hollow shafts, and designing shafts for strength and stiffness.
• Buckling — Slender members in compression can suddenly bow sideways at loads far below their crushing strength. Learn Euler's critical load, effective length, slenderness ratio, Johnson's formula and design against instability.
• Aircraft Structures: Loads, Thin Walls & Stressed Skin — How aircraft carry enormous loads with very little weight. Learn the loads on an aircraft (aerodynamic, inertial, pressurisation, landing), shear force and bending moment along a wing, semi-monocoque construction (skin, stringers, ribs, spars, frames), thin-walled beams, shear flow and the Bredt–Batho formula for torsion, skin buckling and stiffeners, fuselage pressurisation stresses, and the FEA workflow — with Python analysing a wing box.
• Aerospace Materials & Composites — Choosing materials where every gram counts. Learn specific strength and stiffness, aluminium alloys (2xxx, 7xxx, Al-Li), titanium, steels, nickel superalloys, ceramics and CMCs, polymer-matrix composites (carbon/glass/aramid), lamina properties and the rule of mixtures, laminate lay-ups, manufacturing (prepreg, autoclave, AFP, RTM), damage and inspection, and material selection — with Python comparing metals and computing CFRP ply properties.
• Additive Manufacturing — Additive manufacturing builds parts layer by layer from digital models. Learn the seven ISO/ASTM process families, metal powder-bed fusion, DED and binder jetting, energy density, supports, post-processing and design for AM.
• Fatigue — Fatigue is failure under repeated loading at stresses below yield. Learn S–N curves, endurance limit, mean-stress effects (Goodman), Marin factors, crack growth and how to design for millions of cycles.
• Fatigue, Damage Tolerance & Aeroelasticity — Structures that last and don't shake themselves apart. Learn fatigue in aircraft (S-N curves, Miner's rule, spectra), the safe-life, fail-safe and damage-tolerance philosophies, fracture mechanics (stress intensity, fracture toughness, Paris law crack growth), inspection intervals and widespread fatigue damage, and aeroelasticity — divergence, control reversal, flutter and gust response — with Python integrating crack growth.