SHYLAJA SRIHARI DR

Shylaja’s research is related to assessment of environmental effects on composite materials for aerospace applications. The research studies have resulted in generating crucial inputs to the design and certification of the country’s first all-composite two seater trainer aircraft–HANSA developed by NAL indigenously in a situation when no such data was available in literature then.

The focus of the environmental conditioning of polymer composites is to enable to provide data on the effects of temperature and moisture and derive environmental compensation and scatter factors to account for the static test condition environment. This is achieved by statistical derivation of design allowable for both A and B-basis applications based on the test data generated at coupon-level with ambient and simulated service (environmental) conditions. These studies have led to successfully incorporating temperature/ humidity considerations into material design, test, and evaluation. Over the years, the environmental qualification and testing expertise has led to certification of many products developed by NAL including HANSA aircraft, components for space applications, radomes for both airborne and ground based Radars etc. and several non aerospace components.

Presently her focus is on the indigenous development of radomes with newer materials including stealth and phased array radomes for strategic applications in addition to the research on environmental effects on  the new composites.

Research Interest

 Fields of interest are in Environmental Qualification of composites aiding the design of composite structures such as Radomes and aircraft structures. Also predict long term service behavior of composites by theoretical models, certification of both aerospace and non aerospace components, Natural Fiber composites and Nano composites.