• Senior Lecturer (Infrastructure and Environment)
• Senior Adviser of Studies (Science and Engineering College Academic & Student Administration)

telephone: 01413304345
email: Christopher.York@glasgow.ac.uk

• personal website: http://userweb.eng.gla.ac.uk/christopher.york/

Biography

I gained a first in Civil Engineering in 1990 and completed a PhD in Structural Engineering in 1993; both at the University of Wales, Cardiff. 

Following a two-year period of post-doctoral research at the University of Wales, Cardiff, investigating structural optimisation methodologies for application to lightweight air-vehicle design, I joined the University of Edinburgh in 1995 as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering.

My continuing research interests in lightweight structures attracted me to Glasgow in 2001: the only institution in Scotland delivering an Aeronautical Engineering degree program, thus offering an opportunity to engage in research led teaching.

An industrial secondment with BAE Systems in 2004, involving structural optimisation studies for the future Joint Strike Fighter, provided the catalyst that gave rise to my current research interests in the thermo-mechanical behaviour of coupled laminated composite materials.

Research Interests

Research interests in laminated composite materials at the University of Glasgow focus specifically on the characterisation and behaviour of structural laminates, particularly with respect to buckling and vibration response.  These activities are associated with Computational mechanics: simulation and modelling and Computational material science research within the Infrastructure and Environment division of the school of engineering.

Current research activities are focused on the development of a unified approach to the characterisation of coupled laminated composites involving: algorithm development for identification and characterisation of coupled laminate stacking sequence configurations, the vast majority possessing unique forms of mechanical coupling behaviour not previously identified; critical assessments of the benefits, or otherwise, to a wide range of functional and/or structural material applications and; development of laminate benchmark configurations, with properties exhibiting behaviour similar to conventional (metallic) materials, and against which all unique forms of laminate behaviour, arising from isolated and combined mechanical coupling effects, are being characterised.

Recent discoveries include twenty-four unique classes of mechanically coupled laminate. 
One new laminate class possesses in-plane coupling behaviour only, i.e. extension-shearing coupling. Such laminates can be configured to produce bending-twisting coupling in wing-box type structures, which can be exploited to great effect in the design for passive load alleviation in wind-turbine blades, or for aero-elastic compliance in helicopter rotor-blades. Similar behaviour can also be achieved by using less sophisticated designs, such as applying off-axis material alignment to otherwise balanced and symmetric laminates, but additional forms of coupling behaviour arise in these cases, leading to detrimental effects on both stiffness and strength. 
Other exotic forms of mechanical coupling have also been newly discovered, and contrary to long held misconceptions, a surprisingly broad range of these designs can be manufactured without the undesirable warping distortions that generally result from the high temperature curing process. Such laminate designs may be described as Hygro-Thermally Curvature-Stable (HTCS) or warp-free and are likely to become an import enabling technology in future ‘smart’ structures. 

PhD opportunities in mechanics of composite materials are available within the Aerospace Sciences and Infrastructure and Environment research divisions.

Expertise

Buckling and Vibration analysis of prismatic and skewed repetitive aerospace panel structures.
Minimum mass design of composite panel structures subject to buckling and material strength constraints.
Tailoring of Thermo-Mechanical behaviour in Laminated Composite Materials.

Mr Mohd Hafizi Shamsudin; PhD Student, Thermo-mechanical behaviour of woven cloth laminates.

Aircraft structures and materials 5

Aircraft structures and materials 4

Aircraft structures and materials 3

Aircraft structural analysis and design 3