DLR - Institute of Structures and Design

Institute of Structures and Design

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinz Voggenreiter
Head of the Institute, Stuttgart

Institute of Structures and Design

The research activities in the Institute of Structures and Design are concerned with the development and implementation of composite materials with polymer and ceramic matrix in innovative, high performance structures. The developments are not only for aeronautics and aerospace applications, but also for general technical applications within alternative energy technologies, transportation and mechanical engineering. Design and construction principles are hereby developed and validated, which under the given boundary conditions of the application, offer economical solutions with high reliability.

Full article

Research fields of the institut

Leading edge made in hybrid design with CF-PEEK und metal

High Performance Lightweight Constructions for Aviation and Traffic

The main topic for aviation and traffic high performance lightweight constructions are affected by co-operation on interdisciplinary research with other institutes of the DLR (RK, WF, AE and FK) as well as companies of aeronautic and space industry and automobile suppliers in Baden- Württemberg, Germany and Europe. The engineering with fibre reinforced composite materials with duromere and thermoplastic matrices in the construction and computation as well as the use of suitable manufacturing routes, under consideration of cost-efficiency, economy and industrial needs, provides the supply of closed process chains. In this research field the ability can be illustrated from construction and design to finished prototypes.

Automatic generation of aircraft fuselage sections for crash simulations

Crash, High-velocity impact and virtual certification

Die Forschungsaktivitäten der Abteilung „Strukturelle Integrität” liegen im Bereich der Funktionstüchtigkeit und Schadenstoleranz von hochbelasteten Tragstrukturen nach Crash-Belastung und Schädigung durch Schlag- und Stoßbelastung, z.B. durch Stein-, Hagel- oder Vogelschlag.

CMC-Engineering – Von der Werkstoffentwicklung zum Strukturbauteil

CMC Technology and Structures

General aim of the works is the development of thermally and mechanically highly loaded, lightweight CMC (Ceramic matrix Composites) structures for various application fields. Thereby, the significant increase of performance and efficiency of technical systems or individual components, as well as the associated preservation of resources and reduction of environmental pollution are always in the focus.

High temperature lightweight structures for space applications

The system oriented development work in the department of Space System Integration concentrates on the two groups thermal protection systems and hot primary structures of re-entry vehicles, as well as on thrust chamber technology for effusion cooled, cryogenic rocket engines in a new hybrid construction using polymere and ceramic composite materials. Both domains are important key technologies for the development of future space transportation systems.

Luftgekoppelte Ultraschalluntersuchung eines Faserkeramik-Bauteils

Computer aided non-destructive evaluation methods

There are numerous measurement techniques that are used for non-destructive component inspection and viewing the resulting data under aspects like image clearness, resolution, defect sensibility and selectivity, there are big differences. In any case the selection of the right evaluation method and the combination of several measurement techniques are decisive for high expressiveness and efficiency of such kind of investigation.


Zentrum für Leichtbauproduktions- technologie, Standort Augsburg