Lusitha Ramachandra

Background

Lusitha S. Ramachandra is an aerospace engineer at Cranfield University’s Integrated Vehicle Health Management Centre. He holds a First Class BEng (Hons) Aerospace Engineering degree from Kingston University London and has more than two decades of experience across aviation and aerospace engineering. Before moving into research environment, Lusitha worked in aviation engineering environments involving aircraft systems, airframe structures, landing gear, wheels and brakes, airframe systems troubleshooting, aircraft modifications, maintenance planning and engineering project support. His professional background includes experience with commercial aircraft platforms and airline engineering operations, providing a strong practical foundation for his current research in aircraft health monitoring and predictive maintenance. His research brings together live aircraft data acquisition, infrared thermography, operational aircraft knowledge and AI enhanced modelling to support improved monitoring of aircraft wheel and brake behaviour after landing.

Research opportunities

- Airframe Systems Engineering

- Aircraft Maintenance Engineering

- Integrated Vehicle Health Management

- Landing Gear Thermal Monitoring

- AI-assited Aircraft Health Prognosis

Current activities

Lusitha’s current research focuses on the development of real-time, non-intrusive monitoring and predictive maintenance methods for aircraft tyre pressure and wheel and brake thermal behaviour. He has been working in Cranfield University on an industry related project titled Real-Time Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Aircraft Tyre Pressures.

The project aims to support optimal aircraft tyre pressure management through efficient algorithms that enable high-fidelity monitoring and prediction models for tyre maintenance optimisation. Within this work, Lusitha investigates the relationship between post-landing aircraft operating conditions, wheel and brake thermal behaviour, tyre pressure evolution and environmental effects.

His research uses live aircraft data acquired from Cranfield’s operational aircraft, including infrared thermographic measurements, wheel and brake temperature data, tyre pressure measurements, aircraft operational parameters and local environmental data. The work contributes to the development of condition monitoring and AI assisted predictive models for aircraft wheel and brake systems, with the long-term objective of supporting maintenance decision-making, dispatch reliability and safer aircraft ground operations.

His wider research interests include aircraft landing gear health monitoring, brake temperature prediction, tyre pressure compensation, infrared thermography, machine-learning-based prognostics, and the integration of engineering knowledge with data-driven maintenance models.

Clients

• Airbus SE

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers