MrKai Tan

Kai Xuan Tan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London, supervised by Professor Silvestre Pinho, with doctoral research funded through an EPSRC fellowship. The research focuses on developing and improving failure prediction models for laminated composite materials, with emphasis on extending the LaRC05 framework to account for manufacturing defects such as fiber waviness and ply gaps in large-scale structures including full-wing assemblies. This work combines computational modeling in Abaqus with advanced constitutive formulations developed in Fortran, employing rigorous validation frameworks and detailed finite element data extraction to investigate damage mechanisms across multiple defect typologies. The research is strengthened through regular collaboration with multiple teams at Airbus UK, ensuring that developed failure models maintain practical relevance to current engineering challenges and manufacturing realities in the aerospace composite industry.