Saman Farhangdoust "Smart Multifunctional Meta-Structures for Next Generation Electric Aircraft"

10:00 am
March 29, 2024
Room: 270 NCB Hall
Saman Farhangdoust

Abstract:  In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift towards intelligent transportation systems with the advancement of electric aircraft (EA) (e.g., electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing), enabling the aviation sector to provide environmentally friendly Urban Air Mobility with zero emissions and quieter flights. Concurrently, there has been witnessed exponential growth in the utilization of lithium-ion batteries in EA, thanks to their high energy density and long endurance life. To safeguard such combustible batteries from environmental conditions (e.g., impact and deformation), the inclusion of enclosure layers is necessary, resulting in increased overall weight of EA and subsequently reducing flight performance. To tackle this challenge, Dr. Farhangdoust will introduce a new design-to-manufacturing approach for multifunctional structural battery composites (MSBC) in this talk, which enables simultaneous carrying of structural loads, provision of energy storage capabilities, and incorporation of a real-time energy and structural health monitoring system. He will also discuss the potential of meta-structure designs (e.g., Auxetic Origami) to advance MSBC with complex geometry, offering exceptional maneuverability and deployability for a wide range of real-world aerospace applications, from Morphing UAV to Space Robotic Systems. Regarding his future plans, Dr. Farhangdoust will propose pioneering integration of the MSBC with metamaterial energy harvesting wearables to enable a self-powered monitoring system, which he has patented in collaboration with the Boeing Company.

Bio:  Saman Farhangdoust is currently a postdoctoral scholar and lab manager at the Structures and Composite Lab in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Stanford University, where he has led projects in multifunctional structures with an emphasis on intelligent self-sensing diagnostics for space and aircraft structures. He has successfully delivered completion prototypes for several funded projects at Stanford, such as ONR and DOE. Beyond Stanford, Saman has been collaborating with Boeing to develop Metamaterial-inspired Energy Harvesters, resulting in sponsorship for six of his US patents by Boeing. Before joining Stanford, Saman worked on smart structures at MIT Media Lab as a technical consultant. Saman holds a BS in Solid Mechanics, two MS degrees in Mechanical and Civil Engineering, and a PhD in Structural Engineering. He has been recognized with over 20 awards, including the USDOT Outstanding Student of the Year Award, the SEI Professional Scholarship, among others. As an example of his international leadership roles, Saman has served as the Conference Co-Chair for the SPIE Smart Structures+NDE Symposium (2022-2024) and as the Workshop Program Manager for the IWSHM (2021-2023), concurrently serving as the editor for their Conference Proceedings. He also was recently appointed as the Secretary Officer for the ASNT Research Council.