Additive manufacturing brought to the emergence of a new class of fibre-reinforced materials; namely, the Variable Angle Tow (VAT) composites. AFP and FDM machines allow the fibres to be relaxed along curvilinear paths within the lamina. In theory, the designer can conceive VAT structures with unexplored capabilities and tailor materials with optimized stiffness-to-weight ratios. In practise, steering brittle fibres, generally made of glass or carbon, is not trivial. Printing must be performed at the right combination of temperature, velocity, curvature radii and pressure to preserve the integrity of fibres. The lack of information on how the effect of these parameters propagates through the scales, from fibres to the final structure, represents the missing piece in the puzzle of VAT composites, which today are either costly or difficult to design because affected by unpredictable failure mechanisms and unwanted defects (gaps, overlaps, and fibre kinking).
Implement global/local models for the simulation and analysis of printed composites with unprecedented accuracy from fibre-matrix to component scales.
Develop a (hybrid) metamodeling platform based on machine learning for defect sensitivity and optimization.
Bridge the manufacturing signature with the final structure in a multi-scale sense for setting new rules and best-practices to design for manufacturing.
Alfonso Pagani is the coordinator of PRE-ECO project and serves as associate professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino. He earned a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at City University of London in 2016 and, earlier, a Ph.D. in Fluid-dynamics at Politecnico di Torino under the supervision of Prof. E. Carrera.
In 2018, Alfonso joined California Institute of Technology as visiting associate to work on acoustics of meta-materials. Also, he spent research periods at Purdue University in 2016, where he worked on micro-mechanics of fibre-reinforced composites with Prof. W. Yu; RMIT Melbourne in 2014, where he developed models for flutter analysis and gust response of composite lifting surfaces with Prof. E. Carrera and M. Petrolo; at Universidade do Porto in 2013, where he carried out investigations on the use of RBFs for the solution of equations of motion of higher-order beam models with Prof. A.J.M. Ferreira; at London City University in 2012, where he formulated exact, DSM-based models for metallic and composite structures with Prof. R. Banerjee.
Alfonso is the co-author of some 150 publications, including 90+ articles in International Journals, which have collected more than 1200 citations (h-index 21, source: Scopus). He acts as a reviewer for more than 20 International journals and is associate editor for Advances in Aircraft and Spacecraft Structures, an Int’l Journal (Techno-Press) and the International Journal of Dynamics and Control (Springer).
Matteo Filippi is Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He earned a BSc in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico di Torino in March 2009. Afterwards he attended a MSc in the same university in December 2011, presenting a thesis on higher order one-dimensional structural models applied to static and dynamic of stiffened thin-walled structures, and a PhD in Fluid-dynamics in 2015, defending a work on aeroelasticity of rotor blades.
His current research interests include, but are not limited to, rotor-dynamics of helicopter blades and turbines, nonlinear analysis of composite structures, wave propagation and noise, as well as metamaterials. He is the co-author of more than 70 Journal articles on those topics.
Riccardo Augello is a researcher at Politecnico di Torino. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 2014 by discussing a thesis on the evaluation of the dissipated power of Gaussian specimen in very-high-cycle fatigue tests. Afterward, he earned a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 2016. His master thesis topic was “Multibody simulation of landing mission phases for robotic exploration”, which was undertaken after an Internship period at Thales Alenia Space.
Riccardo Augello started working at Politecnico di Torino in January 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Erasmo Carrera, and he started his Ph.D. program in Mechanics in November 2017. His doctoral project was about micropolar theories and was carried out in collaboration with the City University of Hong Kong, where he spent six months in 2019.
In the framework of PRE-ECO, Riccardo is developing advanced theories based on nonlocal mechanics, including the geometrical nonlinear analysis for the large deflection and post-buckling of composite structures.