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Welcome to CerTest

Developing new approaches to enable lighter, more cost and fuel efficient composite aero-structures.

This Programme Grant is funded by the EPSRC and forms a unique opportunity uniting 4 academic institutions (Bristol, Bath, Southampton, and Exeter). Combined with a large cohort of PhD students and an experienced stakeholder community in close collaboration as project partners, we undertake world-leading engineering and create a long-term legacy for composite aero-structures and aircraft certification.

The overarching aim of CerTest is to develop the scientific foundation that enables lighter, safer and more cost efficient composite aerostructures. The research will result in a new approach for integrated high-fidelity structural testing and multi-scale statistical modelling through Design of Experiments (DoE) and Bayesian Learning.  The efficient exploitation and optimisation of advanced composite aero-structures is fundamentally prohibited by current test, simulation and certification approaches, and CerTest seeks to break this impasse by holistically addressing the challenges that are preventing step-changes in future engineering design by reshaping the ‘Testing Pyramid’.

Research Challenges

The vision of the Programme Grant is realised through 4 flexible and highly interlinked and interdependent Research Challenges – utilising a multi-scale approach drawing on the expertise from the different project partners.

We’re working with leading Industry experts

The Programme Grant is supported by 4 industrial partners from the UK aerospace industry. It is also supported by the HVMCs though the NCC and collaboration with The Alan Turing Institute.