Making aircraft safer through the science of composite materials.
PhD researcher at the University of Bath, co-funded by Dowty Propellers (GE Aerospace), developing tolerance-aware design and defect-detection methods for next-generation carbon-fibre propeller blades.
Hoang Minh Luong is a materials scientist and aerospace engineer working at the frontier of composite safety. As a PhD candidate at the University of Bath — co-funded by Dowty Propellers (GE Aerospace) — he develops tolerance-aware design and defect-detection methods for next-generation carbon-fibre propeller blades. He is also a member of Bath's Centre for Integrated Materials, Processes & Structures (IMPS), linking advanced materials, manufacturing processes and structural integrity with industry-facing aerospace research.
His research reaches into national-scale science: leading synchrotron X-ray campaigns at the Diamond Light Source to see, at the microscale, how hidden defects redistribute stress inside composite structures. He turns those insights into multiscale simulations and ML-ready datasets that help engineers catch flaws long before they ever reach the sky. As a member of CerTest — a £6.9m EPSRC programme reshaping how composite aerostructures are certified — his findings feed straight into industry certification with Dowty Propellers (GE Aerospace).
From Airbus wing design to the Vietnam National Space Centre, from synchrotron beamlines to gold medals in national mathematics and physics — his path has been defined by one thing: solving hard engineering problems that genuinely matter.
X-ray diffraction and computed tomography at the Diamond Light Source, mapping fibre strain and hidden damage at the microscale.
Finite-element models that incorporate measured residual stresses to predict how defects redistribute load through a structure.
3D defect descriptors and ML-ready datasets that power automated defect detection and segmentation in inspection workflows.
Working with industry engineers to translate research into the design and inspection allowables that keep aerospace components safe.
First-author papers in Q1 journals — among the highest-ranked in their fields (impact factor ≈ 14).
Luong, H. M., Trevarthen, J., Dolbnya, I., Singhapong, W., Pilato, N., Butler, R., Srisuriyachot, J., & Lunt, A. J. G. Advanced Science, e19053.
Luong, H. M., Trevarthen, J., Butler, R., Srisuriyachot, J., & Lunt, A. J. G. Composites Part B: Engineering, 307, 112818.
Leading synchrotron and CT campaigns to characterise defects in carbon-fibre propeller blades — co-sponsored by Dowty Propellers (GE Aerospace).
Teaching AVDASI 1 — Fundamentals of Aerospace Engineering to Year 1–2 students (aircraft systems, propulsion, design); developing applied materials linking engines, aerodynamics and structures to real aerospace practice.
Built an autonomous UAV inspection platform with Jetson edge AI for crack detection in GPS-denied environments; published in the Journal of Information and Telecommunication.
Simulated autoclave curing in ABAQUS and trained CNN models to optimise composite manufacturing; presented at ICMAC 2022.
Graduated with a Distinction in advanced composite manufacturing; awarded the competitive Think Big International Scholarship — one of only ten awardees.
From composite wing trade studies at Airbus to micro-satellite component redesign at the Vietnam National Space Centre and aircraft line maintenance.
University of Bristol · 2018 — full tuition, one of only ten international awardees.
Brooke House College · 2016–2018
National mathematics competition
National physics competition