EngD Position: Design and Manufacturing Process of Smart Damping Components for Aerospace Applications

Shock absorbers play a critical role in aerospace systems by protecting structural integrity during launch, flight, and landing. They do this by mitigating extreme forces acting on key components, such as launcher brackets and sensitive payloads. The "SMART DAMPER" project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to develop an intelligent damping system by combining the geometric versatility of additive manufacturing (AM) with the adaptive properties of NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs).

Superelastic NiTi SMAs possess unique characteristics, including the ability to recover their original shape after deformation. This allows them to be reused across multiple loading and unloading cycles. Additive manufacturing, particularly Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF), enables the direct integration of energy-dissipating features, making it possible to design customizable structures with mechanical properties tailored to specific payload requirements and varying operational conditions.

The project focuses on the design and fabrication of a structural prototype, such as a payload support or structural bracket, that incorporates NiTi SMA lattice structures. This prototype will serve to demonstrate the practical benefits and technological advancements made possible through the integration of AM and SMAs.