Contact Dr Wenli Liu

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