Welcome to the Air Force Institute of Technology

The Air Force Center for Systems Engineering and faculty and students from AFIT’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management have begun two research threads in a makeshift laboratory called the “Robolab” and at partner facilities. Both efforts are collaborative ventures with the Air Force Research Laboratory and Warner Robbins Air Logistics Center. The first, called Integrated Structural Health Monitoring Systems (ISHMS), is intended to develop an integrated health monitoring system for aging aircraft. Graduate students have set up a system to identify changes in the response characteristics of simple structural elements in airframe structures. Testing is expected to include simulated and actual damage to the test specimens. One unique aspect to this research is that it considers real-world complexities of actual aircraft structures (such as the F-15 bulkhead to the right) including stiffness changes and fastener holes.

Students are using off-the-shelf sensors to measure responses by changing frequency inputs and stiffness parameters. This research is expected to yield a better understanding of the structural health of the Air Force’s aging fleet, but it also conceives of on-board sensors that might eventually change the maintenance concepts for present and future aircraft such as the F-22.

A second project is taking the Air Force back to its flying roots – morphing aircraft parts – with new high-tech composite materials. In this activity, a new automated system is being developed to understand the response of shape memory polymer composites. The research is a proof of concept of both the composites and the lab facilities. The composite laminates are custom made using a specific type of pre-form and shape memory polymer. The cured laminates are of plane rectangular shape (below, left). These laminates are then heated in the environmental chamber and a load is applied to change their shape. After the change, the temperature is reduced to room temperature. The changed shape retains its geometry until heated again. Subsequent reheating returns the laminate to its original rectangular shape. The techniques and materials may one day be used to re-shape modern aircraft wings in-flight to achieve different flight characteristics much like the Wright Brothers used in their first aircraft.