Engineering student wins AIAA Harry Hilton Structures Award

Coburn won the award for his technical paper and presentation ‘Local buckling of blade stiffened variable angle tow panels’. The paper forms part of a major research project led by Professor Paul Weaver on variable angle tow (VAT) composite structures.

The award is based on a two-step process whereby the technical paper is shortlisted following an evaluation and score by the Structures Technical Committee; the presentations of shortlisted candidates are subsequently assessed during the conference. The award, which came with a cash prize of $500, was announced and presented to Coburn at the conference reception.

Co-written alongside Professor Paul Weaver and Dr Zhangming Wu, the paper details the development of a robust analytical method to allow a deeper understanding of blade stiffened variable angle tow panels and a base for future design and optimisation of these novel structures.

Traditionally, composite structures are manufactured by stacking several straight fibre plies or layers to form a laminate. However, the advancement of tape laying and fibre placement technologies has led to the possibility of having VAT laminates whereby the individual layers that form the laminate can have a varying fibre orientation in the plane of a ply. These VAT laminates significantly open up the design space available to engineers, providing increased tailorability and potential for weight savings. Previous work within ACCIS has shown that VAT laminates exhibit significant improvements in buckling and post-buckling performance compared to conventional straight fibre laminates.

Working closely with Airbus and GKN as part of the ABBSTRACT2 programme, Coburn’s work aims to exploit this enhanced buckling performance by applying VAT to aircraft wing skins.

Coburn said: ‘The ACCIS CDT first-year taught component places significant emphasis on effectively communicating and confidently presenting research findings, and gives students training and guidance to develop these skills. As an ACCIS student, it is rewarding and incredibly motivating to receive this award, which recognises both the technical content of the paper and the presentation of the work’.