Dr Iman Dayyani

Areas of expertise

• Aerospace Structures
• Composites
• Computing, Simulation & Modelling
• Structures and Materials

Background

   Dr Iman Dayyani joined Cranfield University (CU) as Lecturer in Structures in March 2016. He has extensive expertise in the development of novel structural characteristics for multidisciplinary applications in aerospace engineering. This includes a broad range of work on composite morphing structures capable of large scale geometry changes.

   Prior to joining CU, Dr Dayyani was a lecturer in Mechanical and Automotive Engineering at Coventry University in 2015, with a research focus on the design of lightweight composite structures for carbon efficient vehicles. In June 2012, he was a full time research assistant at Swansea University (SU) for three years on "Composite Corrugated Structures for Skin of Morphing Aircraft". This project was part of ‘’Optimisation of Multi-scale Structures with applications to Morphing Aircraft’’, funded by European Research Council (ERC). In addition, Dr Dayyani was awarded £40K PhD studentship jointly sponsored by ERC and SU in July 2012. His PhD which was supervised by Prof. Friswell, was awarded after 2.5 years due to his high standard and hardworking research formally acknowledged by SU.

   The challenge and novelty of his PhD was to design and manufacture morphing skin with extreme anisotropic behaviour, i.e. highly stiff to withstand the external aerodynamic loads while flexible to enable the shape changes. This required in-depth analysis of reliable equivalent models for composite corrugated skin to be applied in buckling analysis and optimization of the skin. He experimentally investigated the detailed mechanical behaviour of corrugated skins with elastomer coating, which has become the source of validation for many papers in the literature. He successfully has inspired and led other researchers at SU, for example the publication of a comprehensive review paper on ‘’composite corrugated structures with applications in morphing aircraft’’ in journal of Composite Structures. Moreover, he has presented the results and innovations of these researches at over 10 national and international peer reviewed conferences, for example: the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). 

Research opportunities

PhD opportunities providing experimental, numerical and analytical skills are:

Morphing Structures

Mechanical Metamaterials

Topology Optimization of Cellular Structures

Sandwich Structures

Crashworthiness of Composites and Lightweight Structures

Design of Aerospace Structures ( Wing, ...)

Current activities

   Dr Dayyani is currently the Co-Investigator (CI) of a £1.75M project on Highly Integrated Power-plant and Aerospace Structures at the Aircraft Integration Research Centre (AIRC) at CU. He investigates the use of alternative configurations, disruptive technologies or alternative interface definitions to optimize wing structures with the objectives of weight reduction and increasing the integration between wing and power-plant systems and structures. This is in light of Powerplant Integration with Platform Systems (PIPS), a £8.9M project funded by Rolls-Royce and Innovate UK. Dr Dayyani was Principal Investigator (PI) of a £50K research project funded by Rolls-Royce on preliminary design of large scale rig hardware for aircraft wing testing in the AIRC, CU.

   Dr Dayyani is a key member of Airbus research portfolio at CU, investigating development of advanced materials and structures to increase shock absorption as well as reducing noise and vibration in landing gear systems. He has been successful to win £100K CU funding to hire a PhD student on ‘’Dynamic Structural Characteristics of Metamaterials and Morphing Structures’’ (started from April 2017 for 3 years). He has dedicated substantial time and effort to develop this research. So far, his thought leadership on this research has led to the award of Erasmus+ research grant in Delft University for 4 months as well as submission of a patent application and three journal papers on development, testing and analytical behaviour of Fish Cell metamaterial. He is currently co-supervising two other PhD students on ‘’topology optimisation of hybrid metal-composites for efficient engine integration’’. Moreover, Dr Dayyani has successfully completed the supervision of one PhD student and supervised over 15 MSc students on various topics such as ‘’design and experiments of cellular sandwich panels for enhanced impact resistance’’. Supporting and inspiring these students to maximise collaboration and knowledge exchange has resulted in the award of the best poster presentation among all PhD students at CU in June 2018.

   Dr Dayyani has well recognised communication skills; he was invited recently by Innovate UK to give lectures on ‘’Mechanical Metamaterials and Morphing Structures’’, where he disseminated his research findings and developed new relationships across different industries, disciplines and sectors such as BAE Systems and Innovate UK. Dr Dayyani is an active member of Institution of Mechanical Engineers (MIMECHE) and Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) where he has developed strong relationships with multiple disciplines and sectors. He leads the design and delivery of post graduate modules in different national and international programmes, such as: Turkish Aerospace, Australian Department of Defence and Leonardo Helicopter. He has developed new relationships with these institutes through knowledge exchange as well as collaboration on publications and grant applications.

Clients

Rolls-Royce

Airbus

BAE Systems

Turkish Aerospace

Leonardo Helicopter

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers