2023 HBK Technology Days

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Day 3

Virtual Seminar Series

This 6-part series of 90-minute virtual seminars focus on material and fatigue performance for structural durability – from material coupon testing to full structure testing. The series begins with aerospace and automotive examples for physical structural and vibration tests, and how these can be complemented and enhanced using virtual sensors and structural simulations. These are followed by presentations on coupon and element mechanical testing, for material hardening parameters, baseline material and surface treatment enhancement and degradation, and for characterization of joints. The series concludes by showing how results from these durability tests and simulations become inputs to wider product reliability requirements. Application examples presented include full-scale aircraft structural tests, automotive electric vehicle battery and battery cooler tests and reliability.

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Previous years’ Technology Days have focused fatigue testing, characterisation and simulation of traditional and additive manufactured material, surface treatments and joints & welds (hosted in 2021) and on the performance, durability or reliability requirements of a specific industry or application (hosted in 2022). Both the presentation recordings and downloadable content is available to access below.

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HBK Technology Days includes presenters from:

AIRBUS
Valeo
University of Bradford
HBK Vibration Test Systems

AVL
University of Sheffield
HBK Test and Measurement

Select Engineering Services
University of Brasilia
HBK Durability and Reliability

Day 1 – November 7

Day 2 – November 14

Day 3 – November 21

Day 1 – Structural Testing and Vibration Testing

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Session 1: Aircraft Structural Testing
Session 2: Electric Vehicle Battery Vibration Testing

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Session 1: Aircraft Structural Testing

Fatigue testing full scale airframe and large structural components require significant investment and resources for long durations. To reduce this duration, AIRBUS will describe the “Rapid EF” industry and university collaborative research programme. The Rapid EF objective is to shorten multi-year duration fatigue tests, to reduce overall aircraft development cycle time from a minimum of 8 years to less than 5 years. This is followed by the HBK contributions to Rapid EF, to reduce measurement setup time and reduce downtime in the DAQ measurement chain.

The session closes with University of Sheffield research to construct a structural dynamics digital twin of a Hawk T1A aircraft, to identify the outstanding questions and challenges to direct future efforts by academia and industry.

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The “Rapid EF” project for Accelerated Full-Scale Fatigue Testing

Marco Wagner, Measurement and Control System Engineer, Airbus

AIRBUS desire to shorten their product development cycle, to become more agile to better adapt to market demands. Rapid EF (Rapid Essais de Fatigue ) is a LuFo [*] funded aviation research programme to significantly accelerate full-scale airframe fatigue testing. The biggest testing challenge to fulfil LuFo goals is to shorten multi-year duration fatigue tests to reduce the overall development cycle time from a minimum of 8 years to less than 5 years. Rapid EF aims to reduce a fatigue test by reducing setup time (quicker instrumentation), cycle time (improved control algorithms) and downtime (anticipation of damage through digital twin). Rapid EF is a collaboration led by AIRBUS with project partners: IZfP (Fraunhofer), ZEISS (gom), Applus+ (IMA), DLR, ifas (University of Aachen) and HBK.

[*] LuFo (Luftfahrtforschungsprogramm) is a German funding programme for aviation research, led by the German Aerospace Center DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt). LuFo VI-2 Global Goals include environmentally friendly aviation, future mobility, hybrid-electric aviation, alternative propulsion, hydrogen fuel cells, supplier diversification, digitalization and more.

HBK contributions to Rapid EF to reduce test downtime

Sandro Di Natale, Product and Application Manager - Test and Measurement, HBK

Rapid EF aims to reduce the fatigue test by reducing setup time (quicker instrumentation), cycle time (improved control algorithms) and downtime (anticipation of damage through digital twin). HBK contributions to Rapid EF are mainly responsible for reducing downtime. This presentation will address these challenges and their solutions including:

- to provide redundancy in the DAQ measurement chain to avoid or reduce single point failures

- to provide quick exchange in the DAQ measurement chain when required to avoid DAQ shutdown and reboot

- to provide an open DAQ architecture enable inclusion of tactile sensors, optical & thermal cameras, sound, etc.

- to automate and simplify sensor parameterisation, particularly for the 100’s or 1000’s of strain gauges required

- to quantify and minimize measurement uncertainty

- to provide virtual sensors to complement physical sensors for digital twin model correlation

- to provide measurement data streams for subsequent automated cleansing, analytics and data management

University of Sheffield Laboratory for Verification and Validation aircraft digital twin research and capability

Dr. Timothy Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield

This presentation will look at recent work carried out at The University of Sheffield Laboratory for Verification and Validation ( https://lvv.ac.uk/) , in which the dynamics of a Hawk T1A aircraft were investigated with the aim of constructing a digital twin of this legacy asset. The understanding of this aircraft has been approached, in this project, from the viewpoint of structural dynamics. In the presentation the setup of these tests and subsequent analysis will be discussed. Rather than providing a blueprint for the construction of aerospace digital twins, this presentation will outline some of the outstanding questions and challenges with an aim to initiate discussion on where future efforts by academia and industry might be directed.

Session 2: Electric Vehicle Battery Vibration Testing

The qualification of many products, components and systems require shock and vibration testing to demonstrate their ability to meet performance requirements. National and International Standards define shock and vibration tests for many industries requiring a wide range of vibration test procedures. An electrodynamic shaker is at the centre of many vibration test systems. HBK will introduce vibration test systems and electrodynamic shakers, and then describe in more detail the high shock and high force shakers required to test EV (electric vehicle) battery packs and EV assemblies. AVL will extend this EV battery vibration testing application to a holistic test environment with all required subsystems integrated into a working vibration test system.

The session closes with HBK describing the complementarity of numerical simulation and physical testing and using fatigue equivalent methods to compare and tailor vibration tests, to decrease or increase test duration.

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An introduction to vibration shaker testing: a prelude to EV battery testing

Tim Gardiner, Product Manager - Vibration Test Systems, HBK

Vibration testing aims to reduce the risk of product failing in the field by simulating the vibration conditions that products are exposed to during their lifetime. Test specifications define the applied vibration levels. It is a crucial process in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, and telecommunications, where the failure of mechanical and electronic systems can have severe consequences.

This presentation will describe shaker systems and introduce vibration testing and the theory behind it. A wide range of shaker solutions are required to meet many different industry challenges and applications within this fast evolving test arena.

A summary of topics include:

Electrodynamic shakers – the what and the how
Brief range overview
Applications overview
Combined vibration testing of EV batteries

AVL Technology, Capability, and Applications for EV Battery Vibration Testing

Armin Karner, Senior Application Manager, AVL List GmbH

Vibration and specific mechanical shock testing are important for battery development. For us at AVL, it is important to not only understand the battery shaker, but also to focus on our customer’s application use cases to tailor our offerings accordingly. A holistic test environment with all required subsystems integrated into a working test system is essential. With our experience of existing labs and design studies, we support our customers from application to real test lab. We can even provide complete turnkey solutions to ensure a fast and efficient start-up. AVL's outstanding safety system underlines our extensive experience in battery testing and provides a safe and easy to use test environment. This presentation describes what is needed from a test system perspective and gives an overview of how we can support our customers on their successful journey.

Vibration test profile design and test simulation

Dr. Frédéric Kihm, Product Manager – Analytics and Signal Processing, HBK

This presentation will cover various topics around endurance vibration testing. In the first part of the presentation, we will look specifically at the vibration profile : how to create one from measurements, how to compare several profiles in terms of severity – especially if they are of different natures. We will understand how to scale up the profile to reduce the test duration or to scale it down to increase the test duration.

In the second part, we will discuss the complementarity of numerical simulation and physical testing, especially in cases where a component is responding dynamically to random excitations. We will insist on how CAE can enrich testing and vice versa. This will include the use of virtual sensors for test- CAE correlation and modal analysis for damping values and mode shapes.

Day 2 – Materials Testing and Fatigue Performance

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Session 3: Materials Testing and Characterisation
Session 4: Fatigue Performance of Materials Surface Treatments

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Session 3: Materials Testing and Characterisation

Across all industries, it is becoming increasingly necessary to qualify components based on their reliability and risk of failure. Modern testing methods can improve fatigue prediction of engineered structures with new joining techniques, surface treatments, additively manufactured materials, and composites. The transportation industry is increasingly using novel hybrid joints in their desire for durable lightweight structures to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The introduction of REACH regulations in Europe for protection of human health and the environment from the use of chemicals has led to the development of new surface treatment systems.

This introduces how materials strength and fatigue performance parameters can be determined and used to reduce the variability and uncertainty of fatigue life predictions. This session describes these materials testing and characterisation methods and introduces the following more detailed HBK Technology Day sessions for surface treatments, hybrid joints and use of failure mode and effect analysis to improve durability and reliability.

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Complementary simulation and qualification testing for high confidence in fatigue reliability

Dr. Andrew Halfpenny, Director of Technology – nCode Products, HBK

In the aerospace, automotive, and power generation industries, it is becoming increasingly necessary to qualify components based on their reliability or risk of failure. Fatigue design of mechanical systems has historically followed a deterministic process. That means, for a given set of input loads and component strength parameters, it will return a consistent fatigue life estimate with no variation. In reality, the input loads and component strengths are statistically variable and uncertain. They have a mean expected value, a statistical variability, and uncertainty associated with them.

This presentation considers how digital simulation, physical component testing, uncertainty analysis, and statistical reliability analysis, are used to support the fatigue design requirement, and thereby reduce a company’s exposure to unacceptable safety and warranty risks. It concludes with two cost-effective and fairly easy to implement enhancements to offer significant improvements in predicted confidence of an existing design, simulation, verification, and validation process:

1. Additional test instrumentation applied in the qualification test to verify the simulation results.

2. Qualification tests that must be continued to failure to verify the fatigue simulation.

Materials testing and characterisation for modern engineered materials and structures

Dr. Michelle Hill, Head of Materials Testing, HBK

Any fatigue analysis is only as good as the materials data it is based on. For durable lightweight structures made with new construction techniques or material types, it can be a challenge to find high quality fatigue data. HBK's Advanced Materials Characterisation and Testing (AMCT) facility in the UK has extensive experience in standard and novel fatigue and durability testing. This presentation will illustrate how modern testing methods can improve fatigue prediction of engineered structures with new joining techniques, additively manufactured materials, and composites.

Complementary material parametric testing and simulation for fatigue prediction

Dr. Andrew Halfpenny, Director of Technology – nCode Products, HBK

The structural design of mechanical systems is significantly enhanced by simulation. Fatigue simulation is conveniently divided into two stages:

Stress simulation (or constitutive modelling) is the transformation of loads, through displacements, to structural stresses. A structure may respond to these loads in either a static or dynamic fashion, and the response may be linear or non-linear in its nature. The Finite Element (FE) method is most commonly used for these simulations.
Materials simulation is the transformation of these structural stresses into a statistical likelihood of failure. There are often many possible failure modes, and these may be classified as either:
1. Ultimate Limit State (ULS): e.g. tensile failure or buckling.
2. Serviceability Limit State (SLS): e.g. material ageing or fatigue.

This presentation addresses the characterisation of increasingly complex materials. It considers the simple strength and elastic modulus values, and extends this to include the non-linear, elastic-plastic behaviour. Parameters are shown for several mathematical models depending on the complexity of the stress analysis required.

The presentation continues by covering ULS and SLS failure models. These range from traditional static failures to SN and EN fatigue models, and on to complex thermo-mechanical fatigue and creep models.

For one or more materials connected as a “joint” (bolts, rivets, welds, adhesives, etc.), mechanical testing alone is insufficient in determining their fatigue properties. In this case the term 'stress' will depend on the FE modelling strategy. Different strategies may result in different stress values. It is therefore essential that the test coupons are modelled using the same FE modelling strategy as the final components. This analysis is described in the presentation.

Finally, it becomes necessary to consider the variability of material strength and how this affects the component design. The paper concludes by considering design parameters that are suitable for both traditional Deterministic designs (i.e. safe design curves), and parameters that are suitable for Stochastic design (i.e. simulating uncertainty).

Session 4: Fatigue Performance of Materials Surface Treatments

Many structural components have surface treatments or coatings applied to the surface of the material to help protect against environmental or in service damage. Although these coatings are themselves not structural, it is important to understand the effect of these surface treatments on the fatigue life of a material. Select Engineering Services and HBK have worked together to provide the United States Air Force with more precise predictive models for the fatigue characteristics of landing gear subject to surface treatments and coatings during design, maintenance, and overhaul. This required conducting an extensive surface treatment fatigue testing programme for 300M steel, 4340 steel and 7075 aluminium, with a wide range of surface treatments and developing a Material Assessment and Predictive Analysis (MAPA) tool to manage these. The background and requirements of this work are presented in the 2021 HBK Technology Days. This session describes the results, including the novel combination of strain-life fatigue with surface treatment factors, the MAPA tool and the inclusion of fatigue properties for these baseline materials and their surface treatments in the nCode Premium Materials Database.

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Materials and surface coatings and processes

Dr. Michelle Hill, Head of Materials Testing, HBK

Mr. Ben Griffiths, Chief Engineer, Select Engineering Services

In addition to development of new treatments and coatings, there is also an ongoing requirement to extend the life of legacy components in service, where parts may have been overhauled many times. An example of such an application is the landing gears on many legacy United States Air Force aircraft. This presentation will provide an overview of material and surface treatment fatigue test and characterization approach and discuss key considerations when planning a fatigue test program.

Fatigue methodology for combining surface treatment factors in strain-life fatigue

Dr. Andrew Halfpenny, Director of Technology – nCode Products, HBK

The strain-life fatigue method is generally preferred for military aircraft landing gear fatigue life predictions because at the higher strain levels they experience, the stress-life fatigue method breaks down. The strain-life fatigue method requires strain controlled fatigue testing over a range of strain amplitudes and wide range of fatigue cycles to failure, followed by characterisation to fit parameters for the Ramberg-Osgood-Neuber cyclic plasticity model and Coffin-Manson-Basquin strain-life model. A minimum of 25 fatigue tests are recommended to characterise baseline material fatigue performance for a full range (10² to 10⁷ cycles) equally biased low to high cycle strain-life curve.

The K_sur method for surface treatment factors models the fatigue effect of a surface treatment with a single K_sur parameter to adjust the slope of a stress-life fatigue curve in the high cycle region. This method was originally derived for stress-life fatigue curves and assumes that surface effects are mostly confined to the high cycle fatigue region. It is reasoned that under high cycle fatigue loading, the applied loads are relatively low and localised fatigue initiation sites are dependent on the surface condition. Fatigue testing can be reduced to a minimum of 12 because there is only a single K_sur factor parameter to fit, and tests can be biased for results in the mid to high cycle fatigue region.

This presents how strain-life fatigue parameters can be combined with K_sur surface treatment factors, including sample results and fatigue methodology validation.

Application of the Material Assessment and Predictive Analysis (MAPA) Tool for Fatigue Data Management

Mr. Ben Griffiths, Chief Engineer, Select Engineering Services

SES is developing the MAPA tool to provide the United States Air Force with more precise predictive models for the fatigue characteristics of landing gear subject to surface treatments and coatings during design, maintenance, and overhaul. The MAPA tool manages raw fatigue test data and generates curve fits, strain-life parameters, and plots for rapid data mining. The MAPA tool also exports material property files formatted for direct input to nCode DesignLife for fatigue analysis.

MAPA Data Management

· To manage all raw fatigue test data, and resultant strain-life and K_sur, fatigue parameters.

· To compare raw data and fitted curves.

MAPA Curve Fit Editing

· To curve fit raw fatigue test data into strain-life and K_sur, fatigue parameters.

· To control the curve fitting process, to include/exclude data points, and to set design curve reliability and confidence levels.

Material surface treatment fatigue database

Paul Roberts, Product Manager – nCode DesignLife, HBK

The nCode Premium Material Database (PMD) contains fatigue properties measured on materials tested at the ISO-9001 certified Advanced Materials Characterisation and Test Facility owned and operated by HBK nCode. This collection of fatigue properties contains over 150 materials, mostly commonly used types of steel and aluminium, plus some other non-ferrous materials, and includes recent additions for additively manufactured titanium and Inconel material.

From nCode 2024, the PMD will include fatigue properties for baseline materials and surface treatments resulting from work to characterise fatigue performance of aging aircraft landing gear through overhaul and maintenance cycles. The baseline materials are 300M steel, 4340 steel and 7075 aluminium, with a range of surface treatments including; electrolytic nickel, electroless nickel, cadmium and chrome coatings, and many of these with and without shot peen.

Day 3 – Joint Testing and Fatigue Performance, and Improving Reliability with FMEA

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Session 5: Fatigue Testing, Simulation and Performance of Thin Sheet Joints
Session 6: Improving Reliability with FMEA

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Session 5: Fatigue Testing, Simulation and Performance of Thin Sheet Joints

The use of adhesive and/or hybrid joints are increasingly popular in the transportation industry to achieve their desire for durable lightweight structures to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. To optimise the design of these joints and minimise the risk of in-service fatigue failures, requires robust and easy-to-use methods for their modelling and fatigue life estimation. This session describes how the methods developed for thin sheet welded joints, presented at the 2021 HBK Technology Days, have been extended to adhesive and/or hybrid joint. These methods include using cameras to monitor crack initiation and propagation and displacement transducers for calculating stiffness drops. These tests, coupled with finite element stress analysis to recover the needed stress, enables the transformation of high quality load-life data sets with low scatter into stress-life (SN) fatigue parameters.

The session closes with an introduction to fretting fatigue, and University of Brasilia and University of Leuven research for a new combined experimental and numerical approach to characterise and predict fretting fatigue damage accumulation under variable amplitude loading.

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A methodology for the fatigue testing of adhesive and hybrid joints

Alex Pierpoint, Materials Test Engineer, HBK

This work presents how the HBK methodology for fatigue testing of welded joints has been extended to adhesive and hybrid joints. The method has been successfully implemented by HBK's Advanced Materials Characterisation and Testing (AMCT) facility in the UK. The results from testing are used to derive parameters for use in nCode DesignLife fatigue analysis. The presentation details the impact that defects in the joints can have on the amount of scatter present in the load-life data and how identifying these issues early, through a thorough pre-test inspection of the specimens, can help understand the test data. The possibility of selecting a more representative failure criterion can sometimes aid in reducing the amount of scatter present in the load-life data when compared with using specimen separation. This is achieved through the implementation of cameras to monitor crack initiation and propagation and displacement transducers for calculating stiffness drops. This approach enables the generation of high quality load-life data sets with low scatter. This has a beneficial impact on the quality of the fatigue parameters generated through reverse engineering the test data using finite element stress analysis results.

A practical approach for the fatigue life estimation of adhesive and hybrid joints

Dr. Cristian Bagni, Technologist of Fatigue and Fracture, HBK

The need for more environmentally sustainable ways of transportation and for a reduction in emissions and fuel consumption make lightweight structures essential. The use of adhesive and/or hybrid joints represents one way to reduce the weight of components and it is becoming increasingly popular in the transportation industry. To optimise the design of adhesive and hybrid joints and minimise the risk of in-service fatigue failures, the transportation industry needs efficient, robust, and easy-to-use approaches for the modelling and fatigue life estimation of such joints.

This work presents a practical approach, easily adoptable by companies in the transportation industry, for estimating the fatigue life of adhesive and hybrid joints. The proposed approach includes Finite Element (FE) modelling guidelines to recover the needed stresses, that provide FE models computationally not too onerous, reasonably mesh insensitive and that do not require congruent meshes, with limited changes to the typical FE modelling strategies currently used. The fatigue life estimation is then carried out using standard SN-based nCode DesignLife analysis engines, with the stresses recovered from the FE model and bespoke SN curves obtained through testing used as inputs.

Fretting fatigue under variable amplitude shear loading blocks considering partial slip regime: experimental/numerical analysis

Ph.D. André Luis Pinto, University of Brasilia

Fretting fatigue can occur in many structures, such as riveted lap-joint connections in aircraft fuselage and blade-disc connections in aircraft engines. Fretting fatigue is complex and multiaxial but is commonly simplified to constant amplitude loading, however, this condition is not the reality for many industrial applications. Recent research proposes a new experimental and numerical methodology for the life assessment of components subjected to fretting fatigue under variable amplitude loading. Experimental tests were conducted by applying H-L (High-Low) and L-H (Low-High) alternating amplitude loading blocks to the tangential load while maintaining a constant static contact normal load, and a constant alternating amplitude bulk fatigue load. The new numerical methodology proposed for fretting fatigue life assessment includes the effects of crack nucleation, wear, and crack propagation. Crack nucleation life estimation results are compared using a traditional Miners’ linear damage accumulation and a proposed new non-linear damage model from experimental observations of H-L and L-H loading sequences.

Session 6: Improving Reliability with FMEA

Reliability engineering uses the discipline and hierarchy of failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) to identify and rank potential and actual failure modes from components to systems to full asset. During development and in-service operation, test and field data for failure and survival can populate a hierarchal FMEA with quantifiable failure distributions. Early in concept design failure modes can be ranked, and plans proposed for supplementary development testing where reliability requirements are high but confidence is low because minimal data are available. During in-service operation, analyses of warranty field data can give early identification of future unreliability enabling mitigating actions to be developed and deployed.

Valeo present their application of reliability methods and tools deployed to ensure reliability of their thermal systems for new automotive electrification challenges. Valeo have collaborated with University of Bradford research to develop a model-based system engineering (MBSE) approach to automate some FMEA generation, to alleviate the traditional time and resource intensive expert-centric FMEA approach. The session closes with HBK presenting how to prioritise the tests required to mitigate reliability risk exposure by prioritising supplementary development testing.

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Modern Reliability Methods and Tool for New Mobility: Valeo perspective

Dr. Marco Bonato, Head of Reliability and Data Analytics Expert, Valeo Thermal Systems

As a major tier1 supplier, Valeo is actively involved in the fast pace changes shaping modern automotive industries. The advent of electrification, autonomous and connected driving comes with new challenges for reliability of automotive parts. This concept of “novelty” embraces many aspects related to durability: mission profiling, failure modes detections and preventions, determination of failure root causes, physical models to accelerated design validation tests, analyses of warranty field data, development and comparison of validation specifications, testing and simulations etc.

This presentation illustrates the new methods and tools available within the reliability community that have been deployed in the recent years by Valeo. By focusing on thermal systems related components, we will emphasize the application of these so-called modern reliability tools during the whole process of product development: from concept to support phase. We will illustrate the application of the various reliability approaches grouped according to the three different branches of the discipline: experimental, predictive, and operational reliability.

Several case studies will illustrate the deployment of the new techniques:

· Monitoring of product failure during accelerated bench tests

· Analysis of Big Road Load Data (vehicle measurements)

· Reliability predictions from a small sample size

· Fatigue simulation

· Data Mining for faster reliability predictions

· Data Driven Model-based Systems Engineering for automatic FMEA

Prioritising tests required to mitigate reliability risk exposure

Chris Wynn-Jones, Application Engineer – Reliability, HBK

Continuous Improvement of asset reliability is made possible with a combination of test data and field data. Using Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), we can ask the right questions when attempting to study test and field data to calculate failure distributions over time. Failure modes can then be ranked, and plans proposed for supplementary testing where the data are found to be weak, or the reliability is lowest. Changes to the asset with respect to reliability improvement is actioned and traced through FMEA revision control. In this presentation we demonstrate how FMEA may be used to improve component reliability by combining qualitative engineering judgement with quantitative evidence derived through statistical rigour.

Placing the Expert in-the-Loop: Framework for MBSE-assisted FMEA Generation

Prof. Felician Campean, University of Bradford

While significant progress has been made with the development and adoption of computer modelling and simulation tools to assist with the systems design, many of the analysis methods, in particular those focussed on robustness and reliability for the design and process assurance, including the FMEA, remain expert-centred and time and resource intensive. This talk outlines the development of an MBSE-assisted automatic FMEA generation tool, that places the expert in-the-loop, tasked with providing inputs and systematically reviewing the outcomes as generated system models. The approach emphasizes integration and traceability of requirements and critical characteristics across the levels of decomposition and analysis of the system. A case study of a robotic manufacturing process design for an electric drive unit is used to illustrate the use of the tool in an industrial context. This illustrates the cascade of the critical characteristics across multiple levels of process and tooling design analysis, supporting the synthesis of robust process controls plans for an Industry 4.0 implementation. As well as discussing the effectiveness of the tool, a reflection on the interaction between the analyst / expert, the MBSE model and FMEA, facilitated by the tool is provided. The practical benefits are the robustness and integrity of the FMEA and other design assurance documentation, and their governance for future use.

Meet the Speakers

Black and white portrait of a man's silhouette

Marco Wagner, Measurement and Control System Engineer, Airbus

Marco Wagner has a background in electrical engineering with a specialization in communications engineering. He began his career as a software developer at Harman/Becker, focusing on digital signal processing and I/O controller programming. In 2009, he joined Airbus Defense and Space, where he worked on the development of test and simulation systems for avionics and weapon systems.

During this time, Marco was responsible for the FPGA development and introduced several new FPGA technologies. In addition, he worked on the development of real-time software and established Embedded Linux as the standard operating system for real-time data processing in the test system.

In 2022, Mr. Wagner made a career move to Airbus Commercial.

In his current role, he is responsible for the measurement and control systems at the Structural Test in Hamburg. His main focus is on modeling and simulating test setups as well as post-processing measurement data for continuous structural health monitoring (SHM).

Black and white portrait, with rounded image, of Ryan Young, Engineering Manager of OEM Sensors at HBK. Ryan is one of the experts for the OEM Solution Day 2023, which take place on the 21st and 22nd of March at the HBK in Darmstadt, Germany

Sandro Di Natale, Product and Application Manager - Test and Measurement, HBK

After completing his master’s degree in physics at the University of Heidelberg and a brief experience in Consulting Sandro joined HBK as Product Manager in 2014. Since then, he has been responsible for data acquisition products (hardware and software) focusing on large-scale structural testing and high precision. One main focus of his work is finding solutions with customers to make data acquisition of hundreds or even thousands of sensors more reliable and more efficient.

Dr. Timothy Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Dynamics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield

Dr Timothy Rogers is a senior lecturer in the Dynamics Research Group (DRG), part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sheffield. He has completed both his MEng in Mechanical Engineering and his PhD at Sheffield, the title of which was "Towards Bayesian System Identification: With Application to SHM of Offshore Structures". His work focuses on application of Machine Learning and Bayesian statistical methods to problems in structural dynamics, in particular those within nonlinear system identification and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). His current research interests include: machine learning for structural dynamics and Structural Health Monitoring; Bayesian statistical modelling of structural systems; probabilistic nonlinear system identification; joint input/state/parameter identification.

Tim Gardiner, Product Manager - Vibration Test Systems, HBK

Tim Gardiner joined Hottinger Brüel & Kjær in 2021. Tim has nearly 20 years of experience in product management and commercial leadership both in the UK and Europe with a background in test and measurement. Tim has responsibility for all VTS products that serve in the aerospace, automotive and defence industries, He has a business degree from the Solent University in the UK.

Armin Karner, Senior Application Manager, AVL List GmbH

Armin Karner has graduated in the fields of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering. He joined AVL almost ten years ago and switched to electrified test systems in 2016. Since 2019, he has been working as Senior Application Manager for Battery and Electrified Test Systems in the Application Team Electrification. As an example, he is part of a standards working group to define test procedures for determining charging performance to provide reliable labelling in an understandable and reproducible way for end users. With his experience in these areas, Armin brings extensive technical and solution-oriented experience, especially in the field of battery environmental testing with electrodynamic shakers.

Dr. Frédéric Kihm, Product Manager – Analytics and Signal Processing, HBK

Frédéric Kihm is Product Manager at HBK, responsible for the signal processing related software products, which includes GlyphWorks, VibeSys and nCodeDS. Frédéric previously worked as an Engineering Consultant for nCode and then HBM, involved with signal processing, durability and vibration analyses in the automotive, aerospace, and defence industries. Frédéric holds a MS in Mechanical Engineering from IFMA University in France and a PhD from the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research (ISVR) in Southampton, UK.

Black and white portrait of Andrew Halfpenny, Director of Technology of the HBK nCode Products

Dr. Andrew Halfpenny, Director of Technology – nCode Products, HBK

Dr. Halfpenny has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University College London (UCL) and a Master’s in Civil and Structural Engineering. With over 25 years of experience in structural dynamics, vibration, fatigue and fracture, he has introduced many new technologies to the industry including: FE-based vibration fatigue analysis, crack growth simulation and accelerated vibration testing. He holds a European patent for the ‘Damage monitoring tag’ and developed the new vibration standard used for qualifying UK military helicopters.

He has worked in consultancy with customers across the UK, Europe, Americas and the Far East, and has written publications on Fatigue, Digital Signal Processing and Structural Health Monitoring. He sits on the NAFEMS committee for Dynamic Testing and is a guest lecturer on structural dynamics with The University of Sheffield.

Dr. Michelle Hill, Head of Materials Testing, HBK

Michelle holds a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering and a PhD studying the damage resistance and tolerance of composite sandwich structures, obtained from Loughborough University. She joined HBK in May 2017, having previously held the position of Chief of Materials at the Rolls-Royce CTAL facility on the Isle of Wight. Her speciality is in composite materials characterisation and testing, with hands-on experience in defining and executing large material qualification programmes.

Having spent 10 years on the Rolls-Royce composite fan system programme, leading the Materials team, Michelle has experience of how to relate materials testing to real applications and how to characterize difficult structures such as hybrid joints. At HBK she is responsible for the AMCT facility and the management of the commercial testing activities along with research into the fatigue behaviour of additively manufactured materials and composites.

Mr. Ben Griffiths, Chief Engineer, Select Engineering Services

Ben Griffiths has a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Utah. He has 10 years of experience conducting research and development with an emphasis on materials testing and analysis. Some of the research projects he has worked on include:

Fatigue testing/analysis of landing gear materials with various surface treatments
Full-scale crash testing of composite towers using surrogate aircraft wing sections
Electrically conductive coating qualification testing
Welding of thick section Grade 91 steel to study Type IV creep rupture

Mr. Griffiths is representing Select Engineering Services (SES) which is an employee-owned small business operating out of the state of Utah. SES primarily focuses on engineering and analytical services for the United States Air Force (USAF) and other DoD agencies.

Paul Roberts, Product Manager – nCode DesignLife, HBK

Paul Roberts has been involved with fatigue and durability analysis for the over 40 years. He has been with HBK (formally nCode) for a total of 17 years as an application engineer and product manager for the DesignLife product. Prior to joining nCode, Paul held positions in product development, testing, RLD analysis and FE based engineering consultancy at GKN Technology and Ricardo. Paul graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Aston University in Birmingham, UK.

Alex Pierpoint, Materials Test Engineer, HBK

Mr Alex Pierpoint joined HBK in September 2018 as an apprentice materials test engineer. He studied to gain a Bachelor’s Degree in Maintenance Engineering from the University of Sheffield whilst simultaneously working at HBK’s Advanced Materials Characterisation and Testing (AMCT) facility. Alex’s degree dissertation focussed on creating a methodology for the fatigue testing of welded joints to develop and standardise the testing process. This work enabled the AMCT to adopt a standardised process for testing welded joints. He has since adapted this methodology from welded joints to fatigue testing a broader range of joining methods including adhesive and hybrid joints.

Alex is continuing his career development with a part time and remote Master’s Degree in Advanced Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde, to be completed over the next three years whilst continuing his testing work in the AMCT at HBK.

Dr. Cristian Bagni, Technologist of Fatigue and Fracture, HBK

Dr. Cristian Bagni holds a Master’s Degree in Civil and Structural Engineering (Unversità degli Studi di Parma, Italy) and a PhD in Structural Engineering (The University of Sheffield) developing a new Finite Element methodology to assess the static and fatigue behaviour of notched and cracked components.

He has co-authored papers on Computational Mechanics and Fatigue, and he has reviewed papers for International Journals including ‘Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures’ (FFEMS), and ‘Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics’.

After working for several years at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) on high profile aerospace research projects, he also gained extensive experience on advanced manufacturing processes.

Cristian joined HBK in July 2020 as Technologist for Fatigue and Fracture, and amongst his activities he leads research on the fatigue behaviour of joints. He also supports the Advanced Materials Characterisation & Testing (AMCT) facility with the analysis and post-processing of fatigue test results, and consequent characterisation of both joints and parent materials.

Ph.D. André Luis Pinto, University of Brasilia

Professor at the Federal Institute of Brasília (IFB) and researcher at the University of Brasília (UnB). Ph.D. in Mechanical Sciences from the University of Brasília (UnB) and a Ph.D. in Engineering Technology from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven).

In recent years, he has been working on research into Multiaxial Fatigue and Fretting Fatigue. He completed his master's degree in Mechanical Sciences at UnB (2018) and a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Universidade Evangélica de Goiás-UniEvangélica (2015). He has experience in Mining and Sugar and Alcohol Plants in the Engineering, Maintenance, and Project sectors. During his academic period, he developed research aimed at teaching Mechanical Engineering in Brazil, and Fracture Mechanics.

Dr. Marco Bonato, Head of Reliability and Data Analytics Expert, Valeo Thermal Systems

Marco Bonato is Reliability Manager and Reliability Senior Expert, in Valeo since 2012. His responsibility includes the management and expertise development of the three branches of reliability engineering: operational, experimental and predictive. Marco holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Bristol (UK). Prior to this, he obtained a Master degree in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Padua (Italy).

Black and white portrait of Chris Wynn-Jones, Application Engineer – Reliability at HBK

Chris Wynn-Jones, Application Engineer – Reliability, HBK

Christopher Wynn-Jones has a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from University of Wolverhampton coupled with 25 years of engineering experience. After various manufacturing roles Chris went on to become a Safety and Reliability Engineer for civil and military products in the air, at sea and ground vehicles. He is an Application Engineer for ReliaSoft reliability software, supporting customers in industry and in universities with software solutions and best practices in Engineering for Reliability.

Chris also sits on the WG1 committee of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers [IMechE] Safety and Reliability Group (SRG). The SRG group promotes the development of safety and reliability requirements for products such as equipment, systems or services.

Prof. Felician Campean, University of Bradford

Felician is a Professor in Reliability Engineering, Director of the Automotive Research Centre at the University of Bradford, and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation in the Faculty of Engineering and Digital Technologies. He holds a PhD in Reliability from Brunel University (1998) and a Mechanical / Manufacturing Engineering Degree from Transilvania University (1990).
His research interests revolve around the development of methods and tools to support design for performance, reliability and robustness in the product development of automotive and aerospace complex systems. This includes model-based methods for systems engineering, reliability, robustness and resilience analysis, AI big data analytics methods for intelligent systems lifecycle management, multi-disciplinary design optimization, modelling complex manufacturing and product development processes. He has an extensive track record of working with industry on collaborative research – both fundamental and applied, as well as effective knowledge transfer, with strong evidence of impact to industry.

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2023 HBK Technology Days

Virtual Seminar Series

Interested in learning more?

HBK Technology Days includes presenters from:

Day 1 – November 7

Day 2 – November 14

Day 3 – November 21

Day 1 – Structural Testing and Vibration Testing

Session 1: Aircraft Structural Testing

The “Rapid EF” project for Accelerated Full-Scale Fatigue Testing

HBK contributions to Rapid EF to reduce test downtime

University of Sheffield Laboratory for Verification and Validation aircraft digital twin research and capability

Session 2: Electric Vehicle Battery Vibration Testing

An introduction to vibration shaker testing: a prelude to EV battery testing

AVL Technology, Capability, and Applications for EV Battery Vibration Testing

Vibration test profile design and test simulation

Day 2 – Materials Testing and Fatigue Performance

Session 3: Materials Testing and Characterisation

Complementary simulation and qualification testing for high confidence in fatigue reliability

Materials testing and characterisation for modern engineered materials and structures

Complementary material parametric testing and simulation for fatigue prediction

Session 4: Fatigue Performance of Materials Surface Treatments

Materials and surface coatings and processes

Fatigue methodology for combining surface treatment factors in strain-life fatigue

Application of the Material Assessment and Predictive Analysis (MAPA) Tool for Fatigue Data Management

Material surface treatment fatigue database

Day 3 – Joint Testing and Fatigue Performance, and Improving Reliability with FMEA

Session 5: Fatigue Testing, Simulation and Performance of Thin Sheet Joints

A methodology for the fatigue testing of adhesive and hybrid joints

A practical approach for the fatigue life estimation of adhesive and hybrid joints

Fretting fatigue under variable amplitude shear loading blocks considering partial slip regime: experimental/numerical analysis

Session 6: Improving Reliability with FMEA

Modern Reliability Methods and Tool for New Mobility: Valeo perspective

Prioritising tests required to mitigate reliability risk exposure

Placing the Expert in-the-Loop: Framework for MBSE-assisted FMEA Generation

Meet the Speakers

Day 1 - Speakers

Day 2 - Speakers

Day 3 - Speakers

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