Dr Geoffrey Neale

Areas of expertise

• Aerospace Manufacturing
• Composites
• Aerospace Materials
• Nanomaterials

Background

Dr Geoffrey Neale graduated from the University of Bristol with an MEng in Aerospace Engineering. He went on to pursue a PhD in Advanced Composite Materials at the Engineering Composites Research Centre at Ulster University, where he worked as part of the EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie ICONIC ITN. The project focused on improving the crashworthiness of composite materials and Geoffrey’s PhD research developed crashworthy, functionally graded 3D woven composites for use in aerospace and automotive structures. He helped to expand the understanding of the behaviour of these materials and refine material design for manufacturability. Before Joining Cranfield University, Geoffrey held a postdoctoral position at Ulster University working jointly between the School of Engineering and the School of Biomedical Sciences. Geoffrey has worked predominantly on the manufacture and characterisation of through-thickness reinforced composite materials, particularly 3D woven composites, but also including multi-scale, tufted and stitched composites.

Current activities

Geoffrey is currently a Research Fellow in Through-Thickness Reinforcement of Composites and is part of the EU funded SEER project (A “Smart” Self-monitoring composite tool for aerospace composite manufacturing using Silicon photonic multi-sEnsors Embedded using through-thickness Reinforcement techniques). His work focuses on the integration of sensing systems into composite tooling using through-thickness reinforcement technologies. He is interested in novel and more precise composite manufacture and tooling methods which have the potential to lower costs and/or cycle times while expanding the use of composites beyond its traditional industries.

Clients

• European Commission
• British Academy

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers