ERC Advanced Grant for Chiara Bisagni

The European Research Council has awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to Chiara Bisagni, Full Professor of Aerospace Structures and Computational Mechanics at the faculty of Aerospace Engineering TU Delft. The European grant enables internationally established research leaders to conduct a five-year research project. In her research proposal called NABUCCO Prof. Bisagni will embrace the effect of buckling - generally avoided in aerospace engineering as it can cause damage to materials and structures - as a design opportunity to develop composite structures that can adapt their shape to flight conditions. These adaptive concepts can significantly reduce the structural weight of aircraft, implementing wing morphing capabilities, and increase their efficiency, contributing to sustainable aviation. The NABUCCO-project. In the NABUCCO project Prof. Chiara Bisagni develops radically new concepts of adaptive and buckling-driven composite structures for next generation aircraft. In aeronautics, buckling is generally avoided because it causes stiffness reduction, large deformations and can result in a catastrophic collapse.