Hendrik Traub

Who are you and what is your research topic?
My name is Hendrik Traub. I’m a 30 year old aerospace engineer. At my PhD position at the institute of Adaptronics and Function integration of TU Braunschweig, I’m investigating the structural aspects of laminarisation technologies. Together with my colleague Johannes Wolff I think about the design and manufacturing of suction systems for aircraft wings and fuselage.

Which research question are you working on?
One question raising when designing a suction panel, is how to support the porous suction skin. A dense support of a thin skin is usually guaranteed by a sandwich core structure. However, conventional sandwich core structures such as honeycombe, although light and stiff, do not allow the transport of air inside. Only recently 3D printers started using stiff and lightweight Gyroids as standard infill. Gyroids are a member of Triply Periodic minimal Surface (TPMS) structures which can be used as three dimensional support structure, also allowing the transport of media inside. In order to use TPMS structures as sandwich cores in aviation, an detailed characterisation of their structural behaviour is necessary, which is my topic of research.

What makes this topic special/exciting for you?
Although TPMS structures are known for over one and a halve centuries, only now it’s possible to manufacture them using additive manufacturing techniques.  The modelling and manipulation of TPMS structures as well as the manufacturing is a constant challenge, rewarded with an incredibly lightweight and strong design which lets them somehow seem “futuristic”. I haven’t met one person who was not fascinated by printed samples of TPMS structures.

Why is your topic relevant for future aviation?
Lightweight materials with adjustable stiffness and strength properties allow the construction of efficient aircraft and enable many new technologies. Laminarisation has the potential to be the next big step in the evolution of aviation, after CFRP and high bypass engines in the past decades.  The usage of 3D printing technology is only at its beginning in aviation. To explore the possibilities this technology offers feels like pioneer work.

What is special about participating in the interdisciplinary research network SE²A?
The combined knowledge of all the researchers allows to see one’s own research in the global picture. Actually it’s even possible to find out you already have the solution to somebody else’s problem, e.g. fuel cell researchers are looking for a way to cool down their fuel cells while laminarisation researchers are looking for a way to heat up drawn in air to use it as fresh cabin air. Interestingly enough, TPMS structures in the laminarisation concept are perfect heat exchanger structures, because of their turbulent two channel set up.