Imperial College London is a research-intensive university and all our academic staff lead research activities. All the active research groups within the Department of Aeronautics are listed below. Please follow the links or contact the lead investigator(s) for further details.

Research Groups 1

Advanced Design

Advanced Structural Design; Composite Design; Novel Drone Design; Computational Impact Modelling; Material Modelling; Novel Experimental Designs

Biomedical

Fluid dynamics in biology and medicine, computational and experimental modelling

Cantwell, Doorly, Peiro, Sherwin, Vincent

Computational Astrodynamics

Orbital dynamics, space situational awareness, scientific machine learning, entry descent and landing, spacecraft guidance navigation and control

Davide Amato

Research groups 2

Control and Optimisation

Predictive control, Dynamic optimisation, Real-time optimisation, Numerical methods, Spacecraft control, Aerial information networks

Eric Kerrigan

Deployable and Adaptive Structures

Space Structures, Deployable Structures, Adaptive Structures, Actuation, Precision, Morphing, Multistable

Matthew Santer

Experimental Fluid Mechanics

Turbulence, Wind energy, Scalar mixing

Oliver Buxton

Research groups 3

Flow Control

bluff-body drag reduction, boundary-layer drag reduction, supersonic flows, real-time control, modelling & optimisation, machine learning

Bruce, Gouder, Kerrigan, Morrison, Rigas, Santer, Wynn

Future Materials Group

Polymer and composite processing, polymer and composite engineering, porous materials, sustainable materials, waste as a feedstock

Koonyang Lee

High Speed Aerodynamics

Supersonic, hypersonic, aerothermodynamics, shock waves, re-entry vehicles, high-speed wind tunnels

Paul Bruce

Research groups 4

IDEA Lab: Innovative DEsign and Advanced manufacturing Lab

DfAM, Fibre Reinforced AM, Machine Learning in DfAM, Multi-functionality, Meta-materials, Lattice Structures, Optimisation

Ajit Panesar

Load Control and Aeroelastics Lab

Aeroelasticity, Aeroservoelasticity, Co-Design, Fluid-Structure Interactions, Load Alleviation Systems, Multidisciplinary Design Optimization, Reduced-Order Modelling, Wind Energy

Rafael Palacios

Multiscale Design Optimisation

MDO, Lattices, Multiscale Optimisation, Additive Manufacture, Multi-physics

Santer, Hewson

Research groups 5

Physics-aware machine learning and data assimilation

Machine learning, data assimilation, optimisation, chaos, multi-physics

Luca Magri

PinhoLab

Mechanics of composites; Failure and damage tolerance; Bio-inspired materials; Numerical simulation of composites structures

Silvestre Taveira Pinho

Plasma Propulsion Lab

Electric Propulsion, Spacecraft micropropulsion, plasma thrusters, Hall Effect Thrusters

Aaron Knoll

Research groups 6

Rigas group

Flow Control, Turbulence, Data-Driven Modelling & Control

Georgios Rigas

SherwinLab

High fidelity flow simulation, Spectral/hp element methods

Spencer Sherwin

Solid and Applied Mechanics

Solid and applied mechanics, constitutive modelling, multiscale/multiphysics simulation, data analytics and machine learning, blast and impact engineering, fluid mechanics, experimental techniques

Vito L Tagarielli

Research groups 7

Spacecraft Engineering

Aerothermodynamics, re-entry vehicles, electric propulsion, trajectory optimisation and control, spacecraft SHM,

Amato, Bruce, Kerrigan, Knoll, Santer, Sharif Khodaei

Structural Integrity and Health Monitoring

Structural Health Monitoring; Structural Integrity and Failure analysis; Structural Reliability, Optimization and cost analysis; Health Management of Space structures.

Aliabadi, Sharif Khodaei

Theoretical Fluid Mechanics

Mathematical fluid dynamics, Dynamical systems, Turbulence

Sergei Chernyshenko

Research groups 8

Turbulence Simulation group

Computational Fluids Dynamics, High Performance Computing, Flow Control

Sylvain Laizet

Papadakis Lab

Simulation and control of aerodynamic flows, sensitivity analysis of chaotic systems, turbulent flow and mixing enhancement, fundamental analysis of turbulent flows

George Papadakis

Wind Engineering group

Wind loads on structures, architectural aerodynamics, wind environment, wake-atmospheric boundary layer interactions

Kevin Gouder

Research groups 9

Instability, Turbulence and Pattern Formation Group

Flow instability, transition, turbulence and pattern formations in physical and biological fluid systems.

Yongyun Hwang

Control Engineering

Nonlinear Control, Dynamic Optimization, Distributed Control, Data-Driven Control, Control of Robotic Systems

Thulasi Mylvaganam

Architected Intelligent Matter (AIM) Group

Programmable and intelligent matter through nonlinear mechanics, geometric modelling and advanced manufacturing.

Tian Chen

Research groups 10

Aerial Robotics Laboratory

Biologically inspired flying robots, robot design, fluid-structure interaction, multi-modal robot mobility, aerial-aquatic robots, physical artificial intelligence, soft robotics, multi-model sensing, physical interaction, automated motion, control.

Sophie Armanini

Lightweight Composites

Lightweight metal composites, Manufacture and characterisation, Nanoparticle dispersion, Interface, Polymer composites reinforced by nanocarbon

Qianqian Li

Structural Power Composites

Structural power composites are expected to impact everyday life as we seek to generate, store and consume energy differently. Such high performance materials will have the ability to simultaneously carry mechanical loads and store electrical energy.

Emile Greenhalgh

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