Alan Baker, PhD, FTSE, FIEAust

Senior Research Consultant

Alan has over 40 years experience in advanced composites including 10 years in the Rolls Royce UK Advanced Research Laboratory; he is particularly recognised for pioneering work on bonded composite repair of metallic aircraft components for which he has received several awards, including the 1990 Ministers Award for Achievement in Defence Science, the 1999 Royal Aeronautical Society (Australia) Hargraves Award and the 1999 Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) Specialist Gold Medal. This repair technology has saved ADF many hundreds of millions of dollars and is being widely exploited world-wide.

Dr Alan Baker is a Senior Research Consultant in ACS Australia and Emeritus Research Leader Aerospace Composite Structures, in Air Vehicles Division, DSTO. He is Australian member of the International Editorial Boards of the Journals Composites Part A Applied Science and Manufacturing, Applied Composites and International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives. He has published several books, chapters in books and many scientific papers on composites and composite repair technology. He co-edited and extensively contributed to the highly popular CRC-ACS sponsored book: “Composite Materials for Aircraft Structures”, published by the American Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Alan was involved in CRC-ACS from its inception as Chief Technical Advisor, where he conceived and presented the first technical program to the Selection Committee.

Jonathan D’Cruz, BEng (Aero), PhD

Senior Research Engineer

Dr Jonathan D’Cruz’s work at ACS Australia ranges from multi-partner project management to the hands-on technical, with organisations including the Defence Materials Technology Centre, the United States Naval Academy and Naval Surface Warfare Center. He has spent 12 years in the automotive industry with GM Holden in technical and management roles, widely covering national and international vehicle engineering and design. The prior 10½ years were with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, specialising in digital signal processing/active control, aeroservoelasticity and smart structures—including a stint with the NASA Langley Research Center, working on a multi-national collaborative program.

From 1995 to 1998, he undertook a part-time lectureship in active control in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at RMIT University, where he also assumed postgraduate supervision and examiner responsibilities. Jonathan brings to ACS Australia many years of research, management and commercial experience.

Andrew Gunnion, BEng (Aero), PhD

Senior Research Engineer

Dr Andrew Gunnion specialises in advanced finite element (FE) analysis of composite structures. His research experience includes low-velocity impact, composite welding, repair methods, bird-strike analysis and crashworthy simulation of helicopter and automotive structures. He also has significant experience designing and managing test programs, often for the purpose of validating FE models.

 During his PhD, Andrew collaborated with researchers from Airbus and CRC-ACS to model defects and damage in composites.  He has developed and applied specialist knowledge and experience to a range of aerospace and automotive projects in Europe and Australia.  Notably, he was a key contributor to the Hawker de Havilland/CRC-ACS/Pacific ESI team that performed bird-strike analyses for the certification of the Boeing 787 composite movable trailing edge.

 Andrew also has significant experience in developing in-house engineering software tools which have successfully been deployed in design offices in Europe, Asia and Australia to accelerate the design and certification of aircraft structures.

Xiaolin Liu, BEng, MESci, PhD

Senior Research Engineer

Dr Xiaolin Liu specialises in numerical simulation and experimental characterisation of manufacturing processes. He has more than 15 years of experience in the research and development of advanced composite manufacturing processes. He has led successful efforts to develop numerical procedures that can be used to model heat transfer, resin cure reaction, resin flow, part distortion and residual stress. Also developed are experimental methods to obtain material models for the modelling.

His recent and current research projects include manufacture of aircraft structures with embedded optical fibre sensors, simulation of resin infusion processes, development of new joint technology for composite structures, thermal characterisation and cure modelling process, and prediction of process-induced distortion and residual stress in composite panels.

Xiaolin has also been actively involved in industrial consulting projects, including projects conducted for Boeing Aerostructures Australia (formerly Hawker de Havilland) on thermal characterisation and flow simulation for manufacturing Boeing 787 parts.

Lance McGarva, BEng (Mech), PhD

Senior Research Engineer

Dr Lance McGarva 14 year career in advanced composites began with his PhD in Lightweight Structures at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, investigating rapid manufacture of thermoplastic composite sandwich structures.

 Lance worked at LUSAS, first as a Composite Application Engineer and later as an Engineering Analyst. Part of the work involved development of a finite element analysis tool for predicting manufacturing induced distortion of composite components for the aerospace industry. Consultancy work involved linear and non-linear finite element analysis of a variety of composite structures and components. Dr McGarva then moved to Airbus UK as a Composite Stress Engineer in the Composite Structures Development Centre. In this role he provided stress support for the ALCAS project, aimed at developing composite wing structures and technologies for future aircraft.

Lance joined CRC-ACS in 2008, and was a project leader within the helicopter program, primarily working on the development of alternative manufacturing methods for, and repair of, composite helicopter components. In his current role at ACS Australia, Lance leads operations in the Brisbane office.