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In­sti­tute of Lightweight Sys­tems

Structural health monitoring allows detection of damage to aircraft components made of CFRP
Door sur­round pan­el with in­te­grat­ed SHM net­work
Image 1/3, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Door surround panel with integrated SHM network

DLR has built a large air­craft com­po­nent out of CFRP as part of the EU Smart In­tel­li­gent Air­frame Struc­tures (SARIS­TU) project. Struc­tural Health Mon­i­tor­ing (SHM) with Lamb waves is a promis­ing tech­nique for con­tin­u­ous­ly test­ing fi­bre com­pos­ite struc­tures for dam­age dur­ing op­er­a­tion.
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Fibre metal laminate
Lay­er by lay­er: the in­di­vid­u­al lay­ers in a fi­bre met­al lam­i­nate
Image 2/3, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Layer by layer: the individual layers in a fibre metal laminate

Fund­ed with­in the frame­work of the Ger­man Avi­a­tion Re­search Pro­gramme (Lu­Fo), the ProfiRumpf project by the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and En­er­gy (BMWi) has, for the first time, suc­ceed­ed in the pro­duc­tion of dou­ble-curved fuse­lage seg­ments from alu­mini­um fi­bre­glass lam­i­nate in as­sured qual­i­ty us­ing co­or­di­nat­ed robot tech­nol­o­gy.
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A wing leading edge in the de-icing test bench at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, a partner institute of the DLR Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems.
Pro­tect­ing air­craft from ice: Front view of the de-ic­ing test bench
Image 3/3, Credit: DLR (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Protecting aircraft from ice: Front view of the de-icing test bench

Dur­ing the win­ter, air­craft suf­fer in the bit­ing cold. As is the case with cars, ice can form on air­craft flight deck win­dows and flight in­stru­ment sen­sors. The wings are al­so among the crit­i­cal points of air­craft, and ic­ing can lead to sig­nif­i­cant aero­dy­nam­ic penal­ties. The Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (Deutsches Zen­trum für Luft- und Raum­fahrt; DLR) has found a so­lu­tion to this is­sue. A new elec­tric de-ic­ing tech­nol­o­gy us­ing car­bon fi­bres melts the ice ef­fi­cient­ly and can even pre­vent its for­ma­tion. The func­tion­al­i­ty and en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy of the in­no­va­tive heat­ing sys­tem were in­ves­ti­gat­ed us­ing the de-ic­ing test bed at the Tech­nis­chen Uni­ver­sität Braun­schweig (TU BS).
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The DLR Institute of Lightweight Systems has the know-how for the design and realisation of adaptable, efficient composite structures and lightweight systems. The institute forms the bridge between basic research and industrial application. With its expertise in multifunctional materials, structural mechanics, functional lightweight construction, fibre composite technology, adaptronics and composite process technology, the institute is oriented along the entire supply chain for the manufacture of flexible, efficiently manufactured and tolerant lightweight structures. With its wide range of services and visionary scientists, the Institute is a trusted partner of industry, academic institutions, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG), research institutions, ministries and regulatory authorities.

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Contact
  • Prof. Dr. Martin Wiedemann
    Di­rec­tor, In­sti­tute of Lightweight Sys­tems
    Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (DLR)
    In­sti­tute of Lightweight Sys­tems
    Telephone: +49 531 295-2300
    Fax: +49 531 295-2875
    Lilienthalplatz 7
    38108 Braunschweig
    Contact
  • Peter Wierach
    Ger­man Aerospace Cen­ter (DLR)

    In­sti­tute of Lightweight Sys­tems
    Telephone: +49 531 295-2313
    Fax: +49 531 295-2875
    Linder Höhe
    51147 Köln
    Contact
Locations and Offices
Braunschweig Stade
  • 42,175
    217

    In­sti­tute of Com­pos­ite Struc­tures and Adap­tive Sys­tems: num­ber of em­ploy­ees (2020)

  • 42,175
    42
    Female
  • 42,175
    175
    Male
  • 71,120
    191

    In­sti­tute of Com­pos­ite Struc­tures and Adap­tive Sys­tems: num­ber of peer-re­viewed jour­nal con­tri­bu­tions (2016-2020)

  • 71,120
    71
    peer-reviewed articles (open access)
  • 71,120
    120
    peer-reviewed articles (restricted)
  • 67,125
    192

    In­sti­tute of Com­pos­ite Struc­tures and Adap­tive Sys­tems: num­ber of ISI/Sco­pus peer-re­viewed pub­li­ca­tions (2016-2020)

  • 67,125
    67
    ISI/Scopus peer-reviewed publications (open access)
  • 67,125
    125
    ISI/Scopus peer-reviewed publications (restricted)
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