Education and Training

Aerospace Engineer (BEng, MEng) specialised in composite materials, structural mechanics and aerospace Research with consequent dissertation carried out at the University of Bristol (ACCIS) titled “Innovative thermoplastic cellular cores for high performance structures through KIRIGAMI manufacturing techniques”. Project activities included the manufacturing of different thermoplastic (Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone, PEEK) cellular core structures (closed cells) using the Kirigami cut/folding technique, in order to achieve overall, auxetic or zero Poisson ratio behaviour, ASTM flat-wise compression testing of the specimens and finite element analysis. Internship (6 months) at Progetti Speciali Italiani PSI/ITS focused on my BEng Degree Thesis which consisted in the outline of a prototypical facility for the manufacturing of ceramic matrix composites at LAER s.r.l. situated at Acerra (IT). This included the development of CMC production cycle including possible encumbrance for material handling.

Professional Experience

RTM and VARTM technologies for composite material manufacturing acquired at “Sapienza” Università di Roma using Glass, Kevlar or Carbon fibres with plain or Nano-filled (CNT, Graphene or Alumina nano-particles) thermoset resins. Sapienza Space Team (SST) Team Leader (2014) during the annual “Cansat Competition”, held by NASA and AIAA among others. Selected by BEST (Board of European Students of Technology) in 2007 (Croatia, Hydrodynamics workshops).

In this work I will investigate further the ability of auxetic composites to maximize energy dissipation by combining Bragg effect at several scales, resonant inclusions and negative Poisson’s ratio effect. The two main auxetic effects that I will investigate are the auxetic character of the core and of the foam that can fill the free spaces of the core. The auxetic periodic base structure that I will be consider in this work will be defined according to the partners’ previous works on this topic, in coherence with ESR3. The work will be focused on the design of the inclusions that will be used in the free spaces of the core.

In this work I will investigate further the ability of auxetic composites to maximize energy dissipation by combining Bragg effect at several scales, resonant inclusions and negative Poisson’s ratio effect. The two main auxetic effects that I will investigate are the auxetic character of the core and of the foam that can fill the free spaces of the core. The auxetic periodic base structure that I will be consider in this work will be defined according to the partners’ previous works on this topic, in coherence with ESR3. The work will be focused on the design of the inclusions that will be used in the free spaces of the core.

VIPER project is part of an innovative engineering approach. Including vibroacoustic design rules in the early stage of products development through the use of periodic media which exhibit proper dynamic filtering effects, is basically pushing structural design beyond its classical procedures.

This will therefore be a natural continuation of the work I have done so far at the University of Bristol. Working with Kirigami related projects has been a very inspiring experience and the amount of things I learned during the months spent on my research, convinced me to pursue the Kirigami cellular core path.