Ahmed's research concerns the Design and Optimisation of Liquid Resin Injection Strategy.
Background
“I studied MEng Aeronautical Engineering here at Imperial College (2014-2018) and graduated with First Class honours.”
Research
“My work is about improving a specific repair method used for damaged composites. This method (resin injection repair) is simply the process of drilling small holes in the damaged area and injecting a resin through one hole that repairs by flowing throughout the damage zone, towards other holes and the resin, ultimately cures inside."
"More specifically, I'm proposing a method where we reconstruct the damage zone in a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation code, and simulate the resin flow through the damage zone in order to find an optimal injection configuration (i.e. a good place to drill the holes) which the operator (repair technician) can use to improve the effectiveness of this repair method. My proposed method can be applied in many industries where composites are used. This includes the commercial aerospace industry, maritime industry and defence industry (which have Air, Land and Sea platforms).”
Future plans and PhD life
“My motivation for a PhD is my personal desire to do research. The qualification is important of course, but for me ideally having (at least) one paper that is published, peer-reviewed and under my name is extremely valuable to me.”
Simulating repair resin flow through a damaged composite
“I like to do research, and I also find it important to have a key contribution to a large or otherwise important product or idea or project. So, in the future, I'd like to continue work under Research and Development. The discipline and industry can vary, but as long as it is mentally stimulating work (R&D being such an example) where I can make an important contribution to the end result, there are many paths for me to choose from. But if I were to choose one industry, I'd go for the aerospace industry (especially the space part)!”
“I really enjoy parts in my PhD where I have to tackle a novel problem. One enjoyable part is that there isn't necessarily a single solution (where there could be several solutions, or even no solution at all). But mostly, the fact that I am taking on problems that are new, and that I essentially explore new solutions and horizons that people have not approached before is the most enjoyable part of all.”
“I find having a consistently rigorous work programme (especially during the pandemic) challenging. In standard education, you are given things like classes (i.e. imposed structure). But in a PhD programme (depending on the project) there can be a lot of ground to cover, and without any imposed work structure, it can be hard to plan your hours to work on specific topics.”
“I would tell my younger self to never let his focus and determination waver. I would tell him to keep his eyes on the prize and on the prize only.”
