The Aerospace Section is comprised of three groups working on Aerostructures, Fluid dynamics and Propulsion.

The group of Aerostructures carries out research and teaching activities on mathematical modelling of materials and structures, with special attention to lightweight materials, such as composites and alloys.

Safety of aerospace structures depends critically on the capability of predicting the occurrence and evolution of damage and fracture. These are complex phenomena affected by the interaction of materials properties, loading history and environmental conditions, often interacting across different scales (micro-meso-macro). The Aerospace group has established expertise on fracture and damage mechanics, micromechanics, microscale and multiscale modelling of damage and fracture.

In modern Aerospace structures there is interest in the possibility of early detection of damage through a network of transducers able to interrogate the structures and extract information about its state. These techniques, known as Structural Health Monitoring, are often performed using innovative materials such as for example piezoelectric or magneto-electro-elastic materials. One of the main research topics of the group is the computational modelling of the behavior of this class of smart materials.

The Fluid-dynamics and Propulsion groups work on computational modelling and optimization of external aerodynamics flows and internal combustion problems.