MANDI : Indian Institute of Technology Mandi hosted a National Workshop on ‘Advanced Composites for Aerospace: Design, Manufacturing and Condition Monitoring Perspective’ from 11th to 15th February 2020. Designed especially for researchers and engineers, the workshop helped participants to understand and implement state-of-the-art concepts of design, manufacturing and conditioning monitoring pertaining to advanced composite for aerospace application.
For the workshop, the Institute hosted eminent scientists from Aeronautics Research & Development Board (AR&DB), the aerospace research wing of Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO), who provided the exposure to cutting edge research perspectives on composites in the aerospace industry.
The subject experts who delivered lectures in this workshop included:
- Shailendra N Jaiswal, Executive Director, Ministry of Railway
- S.K. Pandey, AR&DB, DRDO
- Himanshu Pathak, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
- Subhamoy Sen, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
- Sunny Zafar, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
- Rajnish Sharma, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
- Viswanath Balakrishnan, Chair, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
- Rajeev Kumar, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
- Vishal Singh Chauhan, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi
Speaking during the conference, Prof. Timothy A. Gonsalves, Director, IIT Mandi, said, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking over the world. Almost everything is automated these days and we should know how to utilise this technology to remain valuable in the market. IIT Mandi became the first IIT to introduce a full-fledged B. Tech. course in Data Science to address the need of the hour.”
Over the last decade, composite materials have found large scale applications in aerospace industries. With the advent of cheap sensor technologies and powerful computational facilities, condition monitoring has come up as another avenue to ensure safety and serviceability of composite materials used in the aircrafts.The one week workshop was designed to introduce theoretical and practical aspects of composite material research to engineers and researchers to make them equipped to solve problems. The workshop was particularly beneficial for engineering students, engineers and scientists working in various institutions.
The primary objective of this workshop included:
- Introduction to Composite Materials: Basics and Fundamentals
- Manufacturing techniques for Polymer Matrix Composites, Metal Matrix Composites and Ceramic Matrix Composites
- Mechanics of Composite Materials
- Introduction to Finite Element Method for the design analysis of Composite materials
- Micro-macro mechanics-based analysis using ANSYS and DIGIMAT software
- Condition monitoring of composites and application of machine learning
- Hands-on experience with composite condition monitoring
- Exposure to cutting edge research on composites in aerospace industries (will be presented by Scientists from Aeronautics Research & Development Board, DRDO)
Speaking about the impact of the workshop, Dr. Subhamoy Sen, Workshop Coordinator and Assistant Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi, said, “With cutting edge technologies for design and manufacturing and cheap sensor technologies, India is advancing towards the digital age. To materialise the aspiration of making India a global manufacturing hub, the in-house development of state-of-the-art design and manufacturing concepts for all spheres of the industry is being encouraged. The civil, defense and commercial aerospace industries are also pushing their limits to compete with the world leaders in this domain. Over the last decades, composite material has found large scale applications in aerospace industries. With the advent of cheap sensor technologies and powerful computational facilities, condition monitoring has come up as another avenue to ensure safety and serviceability of composite materials in use in the aircraft. This workshop is therefore in line with the nationwide initiative for “make in India” and “Digital India” by Govt. of India.”
Jointly sponsored by Solize and Mathworks, the workshop was attended by more than 100 participants including students and faculty members from Engineering Institutes, Colleges, Polytechnics and Practicing Engineers and Researchers from Industries and R&D Institutions. The workshop provided a thorough idea of Micro-Macro mechanics-based analysis of composite using ANSYS and DIGIMAT software; hands-on experience of Condition Monitoring of composites and Manufacturing techniques for a wide range of composite materials.
