Applications are invited for a Ph.D. studentship on Aircraft State Modelling & 
Separation for Fatigue Design. The scholarship is funded by Airbus Operations 
Ltd through an EPSRC Industrial CASE Award.

The project has the potential of significantly improving the fatigue design and 
maintenance of an aircraft. Fatigue design and fatigue damage estimates are 
based on many factors such as design and performance assumptions, manufacturing, 
component material, stress cycle calculations and service conditions. Of these, 
the stress cycles and service conditions experienced by the aircraft are related 
to the loads acting on the aircraft during flight, such as those resulting from 
the number (and type) of gusts and manoeuvres experienced by the aircraft. Thus, 
refined information on the number and severity of gusts could improve the 
fatigue damage estimates of the aircraft. The hypothesis is that machine 
learning could be applied to historic datasets of in-service and flight test 
data to find specific performance clusters and automatically identify/separate 
the aircraft dynamics due to aircraft control from the dynamics due to gust or 
environmental factors/phenomenon.

More accurate, in-service and flight-test based, statistical data could then be 
used for fatigue design to improve damage estimates and ultimately reduce the 
amount of time an aircraft spends on the ground for inspection of component 
failures. Such research is of utmost importance for the aerospace industry and 
Airbus has a strong interest in developing a maintenance system which makes the 
aircraft available when needed by the airline at minimum maintenance cost and 
which opens opportunities for new maintenance business models and services.

Applications are invited from candidates with (or who are expected to gain) a 
first-class honours degree or equivalent in Aerospace Engineering. Further 
details on eligibility and about the EPSRC case programme can be found at 
https://www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/developing-people-and-
skills/epsrc/studentships/industrial-case/.  The studentship is for 4 years and 
will provide full coverage of tuition fees, a generous travel budget, support 
for a placement of at least 3 months at Airbus, Filton, and an annual tax-free 
enhanced stipend of circa £20,000.

If you wish to discuss any details of the project informally, please contact Dr. 
Andrea Da Ronch, Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research Group, Email: a.da-
ronch@soton.ac.uk, Tel: +44 (0) 2380 59 4787.

Entry Requirements

A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its 
international equivalent).

Closing date: applications should be received no later than 31 May 2023 for 
standard admissions, but later applications may be considered depending on the 
funds remaining in place.