Current Position

From 2023 Michele Pasquali is Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMA) and lecturer for the course Aerospace Structures within the B.Sc. programme in Aerospace Engineering and for the courses Space Structures and Multibody Space Structures within the M.Sc. programme in Space and Astronautical Engineering.

Previous Experiences

2020 - 2023 Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMA) of Sapienza University of Rome and lecturer for the course Aerospace Structures within the B.Sc. programme in Aerospace Engineering and for the course Multibody Space Structures within the M.Sc. programme in Space and Astronautical Engineering.

2019 - 2020  Research Associate at the Analysis Section of the International Thermo-nuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility to participate to the design and realization of the thermonuclear experimental reactor meant to demonstrate the safe feasibility of large-scale fusion-based energy production.

Project Details:

Focus of the work: Participate to the design of the thermonuclear experimental reactor at ITER site in St. Paul-lez-Durance.

• Participate to the design and seismic evaluation of the L4 platforms insisting over the Tokamak complex of the fusion reactor.

• Participate to the assessment and update of the numerical model of the overall tokamak reactor building;

• Review of techinical reports elaborated by various engineering units within the ITER organization against relevant technical international standards (RCC-MRx, Eurocode)     resorting to numerical simulations. This concerned both primary and auxiliary structures and machines needed to carry out the design of the ITER reactor.

Technical environment

• Numerical tools: ANSYS, LS-Dyna, Autodyn, Matlab, Mathematica, MathCAD, SpaceClaim, CATIA V5.

• Materials: Several different concrete and steel grades.

Results achieved

• Constitutive characterization of several different materials meant to be adopted for the realization of particles beam-interacting devices;

• Technical documentation about different pieces of equipment (cranes, frames, pressure vessels, flanges) according to relevant national and international standards.

• Production of additively manufactured parts meant to be installed in HL-LHC resorting to the use of different material powders (Ti64, 17-4-PH, Nb).

2017 - 2019 Marie Curie-Skłodowska Research Fellow at the Engineering Design and Simulations Section of the European Organization for Nuclear  Research (CERN)  to participate to the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) project at Cern Engineering Department in Geneva.

Project Details:

Focus of the work: Participate to the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) project at Cern Engineering Department in Geneva.

• Participate to the HRMT-36 experiment for the dynamic constitutive characterization of novel materials when impacted by particle beams, to be used in HL-LHC beam-interacting devices. This involved: (i) delivering the project’s time planning, (ii) interacting with the designers working at the experimental setup, (iii) interacting with engineers responsible of the instrumentation of the experiment, (iv) carrying out the material procurement, (v) interacting with the management of the testing facilities, (vi) interacting with personnel of the workshop to produce the needed parts, (vii) participating to the data post-processing and interpretation, (viii) organizing post-mortem tests on the samples, (ix), supervising the work of a PhD student working on the experiment, (x) participating to conferences and publishing scientific papers on the subject.

• Participate to the design of prototype parts for the HL-LHC upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider, mainly in the field of collimation. This involved, among others, the completion of ultra-fast thermo-mechanical simulations driven by instantaneous particle beams-induced power deposition over the structures.  

• Engineering evaluation of parts/assemblies against relevant technical international standards resorting to numerical simulations. This concerned all those auxiliary structures and machines needed to carry out the upgrade of the LHC accelerator and implied the writing of appropriate technical documentation, project planning as well as interacting with personnel from the workshop and supervising an MS student.

• Development of Additive Manufacturing capabilities at the engineering department. This involved the realization of numerical analyses aimed at topologically optimize additively manufactured parts as well as at simulating the AM printing process itself in order to compensate parts distortions, reducing printing-induced stresses and optimize the supports;

• Supervision of PhD and MS students in the frame of the section’s engineering unit.

• Collaboration with international universities and research institutes.

Technical environment

• Numerical tools: ANSYS, LS-Dyna, Autodyn, Matlab, Mathematica, MathCAD, SpaceClaim, CATIA V5.

• Materials: Several different graphitic materials for beam-interacting devices, many heavy alloys for radiation shielding purposes, different steel and aluminum grades for various auxiliary pieces of equipment, some metallic material powders.

Results achieved

• Constitutive characterization of several different materials meant to be adopted for the realization of particles beam-interacting devices;

• Technical documentation about different pieces of equipment (cranes, frames, pressure vessels, flanges) according to relevant national and international standards.

• Production of additively manufactured parts meant to be installed in HL-LHC resorting to the use of different material powders (Ti64, 17-4-PH, Nb).

2014 - 2017  Research Associate in ultrasonic wave-based health monitoring of aeronautical and space systems at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of Sapienza University of Rome.

Project details

Focus of the work: Experimental and numerical study of low- and high-velocity impacts on composite carbon fiber-reinforced plane and curved panels for aerospace applications.

• Development of the experimental setup to carry out the drop-test on composite panels, interaction with technicians;

• Development of semi-analytical matlab codes to predict the impact resistance (in terms of ballistic speed) of plane and curved composite panels impacted by low- and high-velocity debris.

• Collaboration with international universities and with the Italian Air Force.

• Manage work with one technician and two master students.

Technical environment

• Experimental tools: Drop-test equipment, Polytec PSV-400 laser-scanner vibrometer, strain gauges, piezo-patches, NI PXI acquisition system.

• Numerical tools: CatiaV5, Labview, Matlab, ANSYS.

• Materials: Carbon-epoxy composite laminates.

Results achieved

• Development of an easy-to-use, effective and fast numerical code capable to predict the response of a thin-walled composed carbon fiber-reinforced panel when impacted by a low- and high-velocity debris encompassing the effect of geometrical curvature

Education

2010 - 2014  PhD in Aeronautical  and  Space  Technologies  achieved at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of Sapienza University of Rome and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (NM, USA).

Project Details:

Focus of the research: Development of an innovative ultrasounds-based procedure to evaluate the presence of internal defects (e.g., delaminations, voids, etc.) in composite, carbon-fiber reinforced panels for aerospace applications.

• Development of the theoretical model to simulate ultrasonic wave propagation in non-homogeneous, anisotropic panels;

• Development of a multi-physics numerical model of panels and piezoelectric transducers resorting to the weak formulation of the governing equations obtained at the previous step;

• Development of the experimental setup to carry out tests aimed at benchmarking numerical simulations: this included material procurement, design of the setup, design of the piezoelectric transducers, interaction with technicians.

• Collaboration with world-renown research laboratories.

• Manage work with several technicians and two stagers.

Technical environment

• Experimental tools: Impedance analyser, signal generator, RF power amplifier, strain gauges, piezo-patches, NI PXI acquisition system.

• Numerical tools: COMSOL Multi-physics, Labview, Mathematica, Matlab.

• Materials: Carbon-epoxy composite laminates, piezoelectric transducers.

Results achieved:

• Development of new ultrasounds-based solutions in the field of actuating/sensing system schemes for damage detection purposes in composite aerospace structures driven by the implementation of multi-physic numerical simulations in the range of ultrafast elastodynamics.

2007 - 2010 MSc in Aeronautical Engineering, cum Laude, achieved at the Civil and Industrial Engineering faculty of Sapienza University of Rome defending the thesis: “Geometrically exact models of thin plates towards nonlinear system identification via higher-order spectral approach”.

2004 - 2010  “Gaetano Marzotto” Business Degree achieved at the “Lamaro-Pozzani“ hall of residence of Rome.

2004 - 2007  BSc in Aerospace Engineering, cum Laude, achieved at the Civil and Industrial Engineering faculty of Sapienza University of Rome.

Training

2011 - 2012  Visiting scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, USA, to carry out the PhD thesis project. Core elements of this scientific experience have been the accomplishment of an extensive experimental campaign in the field of high-frequency ultrasonic propagation in solid composite media, which featured the design of innovative testing setups, as well as the development of new solutions in the field of actuating/sensing system schemes for damage detection purposes driven by the implementation of multi-physic numerical simulations in the range of ultrafast elastodynamics.

2009 - 2010  Visiting student at Clarkson University of Potsdam, New York, USA, to carry out the MS thesis project. The work of research has seen the derivation of a new accurate physics-based mathematical model of composite laminates as well as the development of an innovative damage detection strategy based on higher-order spectral analysis, its subsequent direct implementation in a numerical code for finite element analyses and the realization of a complete experimental campaign to validate the theoretical predictions and the obtained numerical results.

 Awards and Fellowships

• COFUND fellowship administered by the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) and sponsored by the Marie Sklodowska-Curie action under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme to participate to the design of the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) at Cern facilities.

• Fellowship administered by the National Research Council (NRC) and sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to carry out ultrasound-based SHM research activity at the Turner-Fairbank research center (Washington DC, USA).

• US NAVY research grant as visiting scholar at Clarkson University, New York, USA, to carry out the MS thesis project.

• Winner of the “Liviu Librescu” national prize for the best MS thesis in the field of Aerospace Structures.

• Fellowship from the Sapienza Research Program to support the best research projects carried out by PhD students.

• Fellowship from the Graduate Student Mobility Program of Sapienza University of Rome (first placed).