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Student Spotlight: Abdullah Mejbil

Date

Abdullah Mejbil

CEAS-AIDAA, 01 December 2025, Turin, Italy

Talk: Aerostructural Analysis Framework for Novel Hydrogen Aircraft Configurations Using Open-Source Tools

I recently presented my research at the CEAS-AIDAA conference, a European aerospace engineering conference that brought together researchers and industry professionals from across the continent.
My project focuses on developing tools to analyse novel hydrogen aircraft configurations. As the aviation industry moves towards hydrogen propulsion to meet net-zero targets, aircraft designs will need to change significantly. Despite hydrogen's higher energy per kilogram, its low density requires four times more volume than kerosene for the same energy content. This drives the need for high-volume airframes that go beyond conventional tube-and-wing layouts. However, the design tools we currently have are built around traditional aircraft, which creates a gap when trying to evaluate these new concepts at the early design stage.

I presented validation work showing that the framework can accurately predict wing deformation under aerodynamic loads, and demonstrated its ability to rapidly explore different design options—essential for assessing alternative configurations.

The audience engagement was encouraging. I received questions about applying the method to conventional aircraft (which I'm planning with the DLR-F25 concept), extending the analysis beyond wings to other structural components, making the code publicly available, and which optimisation approaches I'm considering. These questions showed genuine interest in the practical applications. I had valuable conversations with fellow researchers working on sustainable aviation and connected with some industry contacts. The feedback I received suggested incorporating damping to speed up the analysis convergence, which is a practical improvement I'll implement. Presenting at this conference improved my ability to communicate technical work clearly and handle questions on the spot. It also raised awareness of the research within the community and may open doors for future collaborations.

Going forward, I'm implementing the suggested improvements and continuing to develop the framework. I plan to return to future conferences once I have optimisation results and more complex configurations to present.