Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

New Adaptive and BUCkling-driven COmposite aerospace structures

Project description

Realising the potential of buckling for adaptive aerospace structures

The aerospace sector is targeting significant efficiency increases, reducing fuel consumption and emissions while enhancing safety. Smart and adaptive morphing wings are designed to seamlessly change shape during flight to minimise drag and enhance efficiency. One structural phenomenon that has long been considered undesirable is buckling, which leads to instability and even failure. The ERC-funded NABUCCO project sees buckling as a design opportunity with potentially pioneering capability. It will harness buckling phenomena in the design and realisation of adaptive composite structures and aircraft morphing wings. Significantly enhanced analytical, optimisation, simulation and test methodologies will account for the expanded design space and ensure safety.

Objective

The NABUCCO project aims to develop radically new concepts of adaptive and buckling-driven composite structures for next generation aircraft. In aeronautics, buckling is generally avoided because it causes stiffness reduction, large deformations, and can result in a catastrophic collapse. Instead, NABUCCO considers buckling no longer as a phenomenon to be avoided, but as a design opportunity to be explored for its ground-breaking potentialities. The idea is to use buckling drawbacks in a positive way, to conceive, design and realize adaptive structures and aircraft morphing wings. These new, lighter, flexible structures will be designed considering all the potentialities offered by composite materials, thanks also to novel manufacturing processes, and modifying the boundary conditions to govern when buckling occurs and to tune multiple non-traditional post-buckling stable configurations. These structures will be able to adapt their shape during different flight conditions, acting on two of the biggest levers for the future of clean aviation: reduced weight and increased efficiency. The concepts proposed in NABUCCO will require a step change for what concerns the design, analysis and optimization methodologies, since the design space will be significantly enlarged and the designer will need the ability to identify, manage and control the buckling phenomena. These solutions can be obtained by adopting an integrated design approach established on a multi-disciplinary thinking. A strongly coupled computational-experimental framework will be developed based on novel analytical formulations, artificial intelligence techniques for large multi-objective optimizations, high-fidelity simulation methodologies and advanced test techniques.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2021-ADG

See all projects funded under this call

Host institution

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 342 038,00
Address
PIAZZA LEONARDO DA VINCI 32
20133 Milano
Italy

See on map

Region
Nord-Ovest Lombardia Milano
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 342 038,00

Beneficiaries (1)

My booklet 0 0