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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Network
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EPSRC funding application being prepared for mechanical testing of composites at liquid hydrogen temperatures (macro+microscale analysis) - support from GKN and FlyZero
Lunt, A., Bowen, C., Rhead, A. & Butler, R.
1/06/22 → …
Project: Research-related funding
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SAXS, WAXS and microtomography of carbon fibre composites: a validation study of lattice strain mapping
Lunt, A., Butler, R., Srisuriyachot, J., Bowen, C., Benezech, J. & Dolbyna, I. P.
6/10/21 → …
Project: Research-related funding
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The effect of voids on the kink band formation in a notched UD carbon fibre composites
Lunt, A., Srisuriyachot, J., Benezech, J., Bowen, C. & Butler, R.
1/08/21 → …
Project: Research-related funding
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Formability of NCF composite fabrics
Butler, R., Loukaides, E. & Rhead, A.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/10/20 → 31/10/23
Project: Research council
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Re-shaping the Test Pyramid
Butler, R., Anaya-Izquierdo, K., Rhead, A. & Scheichl, R.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
1/08/19 → 31/07/24
Project: Research council
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Minimum-mass optimisation for high-rate manufacture of damage tolerant and unbuckled composite components
Scarth, C., Nielsen, M. W. D., Rhead, A. T. & Butler, R., 15 Mar 2022, In: Composite Structures. 284, 115147.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Multiple ply preforming of non-crimp fabrics with distributed magnetic clamping
Jagpal, R., Evangelou, V., Butler, R. & Loukaides, E., 30 Apr 2022, In: Composites Communications. 31, 101107.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile1 Downloads (Pure) -
Preforming of non-crimp fabrics with distributed magnetic clamping and Bayesian optimisation
Jagpal, R., Evangelou, V., Butler, R. & Loukaides, E., 31 Aug 2022, In: Journal of Composite Materials. 56, 18, p. 2835-2854 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile6 Downloads (Pure) -
A data-driven Bayesian optimisation framework for the design and stacking sequence selection of increased notched strength laminates
Chuaqui, T. R. C., Rhead, A. T., Butler, R. & Scarth, C., 1 Dec 2021, In: Composites Part B: Engineering. 226, 109347.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Buckle-driven delamination models for laminate strength prediction and damage tolerant design
Köllner, A., Nielsen, M. W. D., Srisuriyachot, J., Rhead, A. T. & Butler, R., 30 Apr 2021, In: Thin-Walled Structures. 161, 107468.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (SciVal)
Datasets
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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