Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Profile
Professor Richard Butler obtained his BEng and PhD from the University of Wales, Cardiff. He was appointed as Lecturer in Aerospace Structures at Bath in 1990. Since then he has worked closely with aerospace manufacturers to understand and improve the structural performance of advanced wing structures and rotor blades.
He holds a Royal Academy of Engineering & GKN Aerospace Chair in Composites Analysis.
Research
Richard’s research interests are currently focussed on the manufacturability, damage tolerance and elastic tailoring of composite structures. In particular, he has developed novel analytical methods for predicting the compressive strength of composite laminates following delamination damage. Such damage could either be sustained in service, or could arise from small manufacturing defects.
Other interests include: the prediction of stability (as a result of buckling) in aerospace structures and the optimum placement of carbon or glass fibres in structures. Ongoing projects are exploring the use of future manufacturing capability, such as steered fibre paths, to further improve structural efficiency. His group’s optimisation and analysis methods have been used to achieve strength and stiffness improvements of over 20%, leading to significant opportunity for savings in structural weight and fuel-saving potential. Semi-analytical models have been created to predict the formation of fibre-wrinkling defects during manufacture of complex structural components. A new multiscale framework for ultra-efficient (highly parallel) Finite Element Analysis of composite structures is under development with mathematicians Prof Rob Scheichl (Bath) and Dr Tim Dodwell (Exeter).
Richard co-directs the Materials and Structures Research Centre, which has a full suite of structural test facilities, along with the ability to use non-linear Finite Element software for verification and validation purposes.
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Projects
Re-shaping the Test Pyramid
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/08/19 → 31/07/24
Project: Research council
Tomography and lattice strain mapping of damage evolution in carbon fibre composites during in-situ compression
Lunt, A., Butler, R., Dolbnya, I. P., Wilson, S. & Rhead, A.
1/04/19 → …
Project: Other
Mechanical and thermal characterisation of composite matrix materials for enhanced simulation, design and manufacture
Lunt, A., Butler, R. & Bowen, C.
4/03/19 → …
Project: UK industry
Investigations into the influence of micro-to-nanoscale porosity on carbon fibre composite coupon strength
25/02/19 → 20/07/20
Project: UK industry
Research Output
Buckling and strength analysis of panels with discrete stiffness tailoring
Culliford, L., Butler, R., Choudhry, R. & Rhead, A. T., 15 Feb 2020, In : Composite Structures. 234, 111672.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
File
8
Downloads
(Pure)
A plate model for compressive strength prediction of delaminated composites
Choudhry, R. S., Rhead, A. T., Nielsen, M. W. D. & Butler, R., 15 Feb 2019, In : Composite Structures. 210, p. 509-517 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
File
1
Citation
(Scopus)
6
Downloads
(Pure)
Filler materials in composite out-of-plane joints – A review
Sápi, Z., Butler, R. & Rhead, A., 1 Jan 2019, In : Composite Structures. 207, p. 787-800 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article
4
Citations
(Scopus)
High fidelity analysis to predict failure in T-joints
Sapi, Z., Butler, R. & Rhead, A. T., 1 Oct 2019, In : Composite Structures. 225, 111143.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
2
Citations
(Scopus)
High-performance dune modules for solving large-scale, strongly anisotropic elliptic problems with applications to aerospace composites
Butler, R., Dodwell, T., Reinarz, A., Sandhu, A., Scheichl, R. & Seelinger, L., 25 Oct 2019, In : Computer Physics Communications. 106997.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open Access
Datasets
Dataset for the Optimised filler materials for high-performance composite structures PhD project in collaboration with GKN Aerospace
Sápi, Z. (Creator), Butler, R. (Creator), Rhead, A. (Creator), University of Bath, 8 Apr 2019
DOI: 10.15125/BATH-00639
Dataset
Thesis
Aeroelastic Topology Optimisation of Aircraft High Aspect Ratio Wings
Author: Seow, V., 11 Jan 2017Supervisor: Alicia Kim, H. (External person) (Supervisor), Bowen, C. (Supervisor) & Butler, R. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › MPhil
File
Certification and Design for Manufacture of Curved and Tapered Laminates
Author: Fletcher, T., 24 May 2017Supervisor: Butler, R. (Supervisor) & Hunt, G. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › PhD
File
Characterisation and Exploitation of Ultrasonic Guided Wave Modes for Structural Health Monitoring of Glass-Fibre-Reinforced-Polymer Structures
Author: Hernandez-Crespo, B., 19 Jun 2019Supervisor: Butler, R. (Supervisor) & Courtney, C. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › PhD
File
Characterisation of Uncured Carbon Fibre Prepreg
Author: Erland, S., 26 Apr 2017Supervisor: Butler, R. (Supervisor), Dodwell, T. (Supervisor) & Rhead, A. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › PhD
File
Design, Analysis and Testing of Composite T-joints
Author: Sapi, Z., 4 Sep 2019Supervisor: Bowen, C. (Supervisor), Butler, R. (Supervisor) & Rhead, A. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › PhD