Contact Dr Wenli Liu
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758290
- Email: wenli.liu@cranfield.ac.uk
Areas of expertise
- Aerospace Structures
- Aircraft Design
- Airworthiness
- Composites
- Computing, Simulation & Modelling
- Aerospace Materials
Background
Dr Wenli Liu is a Lecturer in Aircraft Structural Integrity and Design. Teaching and related responsibilities include:
- Supervising PhD students - full time, and part time from aerospace industries; Experimental testing and advanced finite element modelling.
- Teaching the key Module Aircraft Fatigue, Fracture Mechanics, and Damage Tolerance for the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc course.
- Teaching the key Module Design and Analysis of Composite Structures for the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc course.
- Supervising Group Design Projects for students on the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc course. The Design Projects mimic aircraft industry scenarios, and each design has to meet current Airworthiness Regulations, e.g. CS 25.
- Supervising Individual Research Projects for postgraduates on the Aerospace Vehicle Design MSc course. The projects involve experiment testing and numerical analysis, and typically focus on composites’ Fatigue and Damage Tolerance, and metal fatigue. More than 15 of Dr Liu’s students have won the top Course Prizes and they were also sponsored by aerospace industries - the MOD, GE, Safran, GKN, and Airbus in the UK, and the Australia Air force, New Zealand Air force, Indian Aerospace, etc from overseas.
- Organising and teaching an annual residential Short Course (5 Day) of Aircraft Fatigue and Damage Tolerance for high-level professionals responsible for ensuring in-service aircraft safety from Commercial and Armed Forces Regulators, Manufacturers, and Operators worldwide.
- Leading and managing MSc course - Course Director of MSc course in Aircraft Engineering (2017-2021), Deputy Course Directors of Aerospace Vehicle Design for 2 years.
In addition to being a highly qualified academic, Dr Liu has gained practical research and design experience in the aircraft industry over the past 20 years. She successfully received funding by the EPSRC as a post-doctoral researcher working on optimisation, manufacture and damage tolerance analysis of novel composites for aircraft application (2005-2007 and 2010-2013). Airbus funded her for two years secondment (2007-2009) at their Filton industrial site to develop an integrated design method for whole composite aircraft wing layout.
Current activities
Fatigue and Damage Tolerance in Metals and Composites
Composite Structural Design and Analysis
Impact and Compression after Impact
Fatigue after Impact
Finite Element Simulation - ABAQUS
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Dang TD, Hallet SR, Kim BC, Cahain YL, Butler R, .... (2015). Modelling of as manufactured geometry for prediction of impact and compression after impact behaviour of variable angle tow laminates. Journal of Composite Materials, 49(12)
- Butler R, Rhead AT, Liu W & Kontis N. (2012). Compressive strength of delaminated aerospace composites. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 370(1965)
Conference Papers
- Liu L, Liu W & Guo S. (2022). Experimental and numerical analysis of post-buckling delamination of composite plate under fatigue loads
- Xu F, Liu W & Irving PE. (2017). Fatigue life and failure of impact-damaged carbon fibre composites under compressive cyclic loads
- Jones E & Liu W. (2017). Effect of core materials on compression after impact strength of composite sandwich panels subject to low velocity impact damage
- Guo S, Liu W & Paophongnbuam P. (2017). Numerical analysis of thermally-induced residual stress and deflection of CFRP wing structure
- Liu W. (2014). Optimised stiffened composite panels of variable fibre tows
- Butler R, Baker N, Liu W & Rhead A. (2009). Damage Tolerance of Buckling Optimized Variable Angle Tow Panels
- Liu W & Butler R. (2007). Optimum Buckling Design for Composite Wing Cover Panels with Manufacturing Constraints
- Liu W, Butler R, Mileham AR & Green AJ. (2005). 46th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference