June 2022

Aircraft Rib Wrinkle Prediction

Aerospace engineering internship project: predicting and mitigating wrinkle formation in hydroformed aluminum aircraft ribs. Ran forming simulations in Altair HyperForm to predict where wrinkles would initiate, then designed relief cutouts into the tooling to redistribute material flow before those regions collapsed. The physical result — a 3D-printed mandrel with the tuned relief cutouts and a formed aluminum rib — validated the simulation approach.