Joël Serra (ISAE-SUPAERO 2018)
VIRTUOSE (VIRTUal testing of aerOnautical compoSites structurEs)
While the current methodology for certifying composite structures (present in the aeronautics industry, but also in the nautical and railway industries) currently requires numerous tests – the certification of the Airbus A350 includes some 70 000 – Joël Serra’s work aims to develop a new methodology for validating these structures, using an intermediate sample scale.
Joël Serra intends to increase the capacity of the calculation code developed at the Clément Ader Institute (Toulouse). The aim is to obtain a predictive numerical model that will eventually allow structures of the order of 50 cm in size to be simulated and numerically validated. This change of scale opens up new perspectives in terms of innovation and technology transfer, since it will allow the numerical validation of these composite structures on difficult scientific problems such as impacts, the junction between two wing elements or even cracks developing in the materials. This new methodology will also accelerate manufacturing and design times by 25% while reducing the cost of numerous tests by 20%.