Blue sky thinking led to new study
Composite material used in Boeing Dreamliner inspired academic to focus on the science of cracking
ANEW design of plane intrigued Dr Erkan Oterkus so much that he decided to devote his career to the “science of cracks”.
Originally from Turkey, he was working on a PHD at the University of Arizona in 2006 when Boeing decided to design an plane, the Dreamliner, made of composite materials rather than steel or aluminium.
“These types of material were new to us especially in terms of potential damage,” he explains.
“We did not know how they would behave subject to extreme loading conditions such as temperature. In order to make sure the plane was safe it was necessary to make sure there was a good understanding of the material.”
The new field of peridynamics (PD) seemed the best way to discover the capabilities of new materials as well as traditional ones, so Erkan decided to concentrate his research in this area.
He completed his PHD then went to work at NASA’S Langley Research Centre in Virginia before coming to the University of Strathclyde where he has worked for the last eight years. His research is mainly focused on the computational mechanics of materials and structures, using state-of-the-art techniques such as peridynamics. His work has been supported by various organisations including the European Union, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), British Council, US Air Force Research Laboratory, Samsung Electronics, Lloyd’s
Register, Babcock, Qinetiq, ORE Catapult, KIAT and Tubitak.
Along with his wife, Dr Selda Oterkus, he runs the new Peridynamics Research Centre at the university.
Also from Turkey, she has a PHD in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona and her research interests focus on computational simulations of damage prediction in structures under various loading conditions such as thermomechanical loading, hygrothermal loading and fluid flow.
One area she is working on is the thermal fracturing behaviour of fuel pellets used in nuclear reactors for the power generation of submarines and naval ships.
Some of Erkan’s recent research has focused on marine composite structures, the failure analysis of electronic packages, the collision and grounding of ships and realtime monitoring of ship structures.
He is the co-author of numerous publications including the first of book on peridynamics.
Both Selda and Erkan work closely together although each has different specialisations. They admit there can sometimes be heated discussions over technical issues.
“To the outsider it may look like we are arguing but we are just discussing,” says Selda with a laugh.