Advanced deployable structures for space flight

The objective of this project is to produce a lightweight, stowable memory-material for deployment in vacuum (i.e. space) to form a general “rigid” composite structure. Once a general structure has been established, the project focus of the project will be the consideration of the option to use the structure as a platform for additional technology (e.g. chemical, electrical, thermal, communication).

The area of high strain composites, especially as applied to flexible composite structures in deployable devices, has been of interest to the aerospace community over the last five years, or so. These structures are frequently used in antennas, or for deploying electronic devices. This means it is often necessary to embed conductors in them, bringing a range of manufacturing challenges. Using carbon fibres is a challenge because the fibres themselves are somewhat conductive, and can interfere with signals, although the benefits from a stiffness and dimensional stability point of view are considerable.

It is possible, in principle, to use the composite itself as the conductor, but carbon by itself is not quite good enough a conductor for most applications. One existing process for producing carbon fibre antennas makes use of fabric lightly coated in nickel in either an evaporation or sputter-coating process. However, it is also possible to increase the conductivity by lightly loading the resin with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), which has the added advantage of potentially allowing conductive paths to be built into the composite.

Another potential application of this kind of approach is the triggering of self-deployment of the composite via resistive heating by passing a current through selectively conductive regions. The deployment could be achieved using strain energy of embedded elements within the composite and heating the surrounding matrix above its glass transition temperature or with a shape memory polymer as the composite matrix.

This project requires a first, upper second, or merit at masters in a physical sciences subject.

UK or EU students only. Please note we are not funded for international students.

IELTS: 6.5 or above (or equivalent) with at least 7.0 in the writing component and at least 6.0 in the other components.

CDT in MiNMaT within the Department of Mechanical Engineering Sciences