Composites

Composite materials and manufacturing are central research areas in the AMCODE Lab, with emphasis on aerospace structures, thermoplastic composites, composite repair, multifunctional materials, automated manufacturing, and design methods for lightweight structural systems. Our work connects materials, processing, structural performance, automation, and digital manufacturing to address practical aerospace and advanced mobility challenges.

Research Focus Areas

Composite Manufacturing and Tooling

The lab develops manufacturing methods and tooling strategies for composite production. This includes both traditional composite processing and additive-enabled tooling workflows. Representative topics include:

• Low-cost materials for composite tooling.
• Robotic large-format additive manufacturing for on-demand composite tooling.
• Compression molding tooling for aerospace composites.
• Vacuum infusion process sensing.
• Machine learning applied to vacuum infusion.
• Large-format tooling for aerospace fabrication.
• Digital industrial lab networks for manufacturing process monitoring.

The goal is to reduce tooling cost, increase process visibility, and improve manufacturability for aerospace and advanced manufacturing applications.

Composite Repair and Sustainment

The lab develops automated and semi-automated repair methods for damaged composite structures. This work is motivated by aircraft maintenance, advanced air mobility, field repair, and sustainment of high-value composite components.

Representative topics include:

• Automated repair of carbon fiber composite structures.
• Scarf repair for composite structures.
• 3D printed tooling for hard-patch repair.
• Automated epoxy extrusion for composite repair.
• Contact-based tool-path mapping for non-native damaged workpieces.
• Vitrimer patch repair for complex composite surfaces.
• Cold spray additive manufacturing for composite repair.
• Residual strength analysis after impact and repairable damage.

This research aims to reduce repair time, improve repeatability, and enable more automated maintenance workflows for composite aerospace structures.

Composite Damage, Impact, and Structural Performance

The lab studies the damage behavior and residual performance of composite materials after impact, manufacturing defects, and repair. This work links experimental characterization, sensing, simulation, and structural assessment.

Research topics include:

• Compression-after-impact testing of thermoplastic composites.
• Impact and damage characterization of thermoplastic composite panels.
• Residual strength retention after impact.
• Laser profilometry and topological analysis of damaged CFRP panels.
• Damage and repair of advanced air mobility composite structures.
• Composite structural response under repairable damage levels.

These efforts support damage-tolerant design, inspection, repair qualification, and performance-based maintenance strategies for aerospace composite structures.

Thermoplastic-Thermoset Hybrid Composite Interfaces

The lab has contributed to research on hybrid bonding between thermoplastic and thermoset composite systems. This includes interface engineering, grafting-based bonding, and fracture characterization.

Representative topics include:

• Grafting-based thermoplastic-thermoset bonding for aerospace structures.
• Interlaminar fracture toughness of hybrid composite structures.
• Effects of overmolding on bond-zone quality.
• Hybrid interface design for aerospace-relevant composite assemblies.

This area is relevant to mixed-material airframes, repair patches, overmolded structures, and joining of legacy thermoset systems with newer thermoplastic components.

Multifunctional and Structural Composites

The lab also contributes to multifunctional composite systems, including structural batteries and embedded sensing. These projects explore ways to integrate mechanical performance with energy storage, sensing, or other functional capabilities.

Research topics include:

• Structural batteries for aerospace mobility applications.
• Carbon fiber electrodes for lithium-ion and sodium-ion structural batteries.
• Dip-coating of carbon fibers for multifunctional electrodes.
• Hybrid graphitic-carbon fiber anodes and NFM cathodes.
• Embedded fiber-optic strain sensors in 3D printed or composite structures.
• Composite structures with process and structural health monitoring capability.

This research supports the long-term vision of aerospace structures that do more than carry load: they may store energy, sense damage, monitor manufacturing quality, or support autonomous maintenance.

Thermoplastic Composite Joining (and Welding)

Development and evaluation of thermoplastic composite joining methods for aerospace structures work includes induction welding, process modeling, tooling, consolidation, sensing, and the transition from thermoset to thermoplastic composite systems. Research topics include:

• Induction welding of thermoplastic composite laminates.
• Process simulation and thermal modeling.
• Consolidation of braided thermoplastic composite structures.
• Closed-loop induction welding systems.
• Tooling for thermoplastic skin-panel welding.
• Optical fiber sensing during induction welding.
• Manufacturing process considerations when transitioning from thermoset to thermoplastic composites.

This work supports future aircraft and advanced air mobility structures where fastener-free assembly, weldability, repairability, and manufacturing rate are critical.

Representative Projects

Student Research and Training

Composite research in the AMCODE Lab provides students with hands-on experience in materials processing, test methods, manufacturing automation, design, modeling, and aerospace structures. Student projects have included:

• Sensing during composite vacuum infusion.
• Machine learning applied to vacuum infusion.
• Vitrimer patches for composite repair.
• Cold spray additive manufacturing for repair.
• Additive repair of composite structures for advanced air mobility.
• Impact and damage of thermoplastic composite panels.
• Residual strength analysis of CFRP after impact.
• Low-cost composite tooling.
• Automated composite repair workflows.

These projects give students experience across the full engineering workflow: concept development, design, manufacturing, testing, data analysis, and technical communication.

Publications and Technical Outputs

Composite research has produced journal papers, conference papers, posters, patents, and invited technical presentations. Representative topics include:

• Compression-after-impact behavior of thermoplastic composite materials.
• Dip-coated carbon fibers for structural lithium-ion batteries.
• Hybrid carbon fiber electrodes for structural sodium-ion batteries.
• Grafting-based thermoplastic-thermoset bonding.
• Induction welding of thermoplastic composite structures.
• Automated repair of composite structures.
• Composite tooling using additive manufacturing.
• Damage characterization and residual strength of composite panels.
• Structural design studies for aerospace composite payloads and vehicles.

This body of work connects process development, experimental validation, structural performance, and aerospace implementation.

Application Domains

The lab’s composite research is motivated by applications in:

• Aerospace structures.
• Advanced air mobility vehicles.
• Urban air mobility propellers and skin panels.
• Composite aircraft repair and sustainment.
• Thermoplastic composite assembly.
• Lightweight structural systems.
• Composite tooling.
• Structural batteries and multifunctional structures.
• Space and small satellite structures.
• Digital and automated composite manufacturing.

Strategic Direction

The long-term objective is to advance composite technologies that are lightweight, repairable, manufacturable, inspectable, and scalable. Current and future work emphasizes:

• Transitioning thermoplastic composite joining from laboratory demonstrations to robust manufacturing workflows.
• Developing automated repair methods for damaged aerospace composite structures.
• Integrating sensing, machine learning, and digital twins into composite manufacturing.
• Reducing tooling cost and lead time for aerospace composite fabrication.
• Quantifying damage tolerance and residual strength after impact and repair.
• Developing multifunctional composite structures with integrated sensing or energy-storage capability.

Through this work, the AMCODE Lab aims to advance composite structures from material-level innovation toward deployable aerospace manufacturing, repair, and sustainment technologies.