VIRtual Design and Testing of Aircraft Structure

The main objective of this project is to improve the mechanical characterization capabilities used during the mechanical testing of structural aeronautical parts such as a wing. More specifically, the project focuses on the development of tools allowing and facilitating the measurement of full-field displacements and deformations using a non-contact measurement method, digital image correlation (DIC) which relies on images obtained from cameras mounted on aircraft.
The PhD candidate will first focus on developing live monitoring methods (cameras) for measuring the displacement of aeronautical structures in flight and comparing them in near real-time with Finite Element simulation results provided by the industrial partner (Bombardier).
During the second half of this PhD project, the student will work on improving and speeding up the ability to perform near-real-time measurements more quickly and efficiently.
The final goal is to develop a tool that allows measuring the deformation of aeronautical structures in flight, which is currently very difficult and limited in order to directly validate Finite Element simulations that are currently indirectly validated through testing on miniatures, prototypes or laboratory testing which do not reproduce the actual flight conditions.