Yasi Jayakody

Qualifications:

PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Kingston University London (2021 to 2025), MSc (Distinction), BSc (Hons) (First Class), Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK (FHEA), Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Certified SolidWorks Expert (CSWE)

Position:

Senior Teaching Technician specialising in Composites

Department:

School of Engineering

Telephone:

+441179656261

Email:

Yasi.Jayakody@uwe.ac.uk

Social media:

About me

I specialise in composites and advanced materials for the most hostile environments in engineering. Hypersonic re-entry at thousands of degrees. The burning core of a jet engine, the subject of my patent application. Rocket structures that must survive launch. Radiation fields that destroy ordinary materials. I apply the same discipline to carbon composites for the next generation of aircraft, launch vehicles and race cars, where every gram is accounted for and failure is not an option, and I teach the engineers who will build them.

I hold a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Kingston University London, where I worked with aerospace manufacturing companies to develop a novel heating route for high temperature protective coatings, an approach new enough to be progressing toward patent. That research took me to Japan as a Junior Research Fellow in the nuclear division at Tokyo Institute of Technology, working on advanced ceramic coatings. My flagship publications are on the oxidation behaviour and fracture toughness of niobium, and on the reactive hot pressing of zirconium disilicide ceramics for nuclear fuel cladding. I have also published on the thermomechanical modelling of ultra high temperature ceramics under hypersonic conditions, and on cryogenic seal behaviour in space propulsion systems. I won the Best Research Presentation Award at the Kingston University Postgraduate Research Conference in 2023.

Composites are where my research is now heading. My current work studies hybrid carbon fibre and flax sandwich panels, and I am actively looking to build research in aerospace composites and resin systems at UWE, in collaboration with colleagues and industry partners who share that interest.

I founded and led Kingston University’s first team in the prestigious BMFA national flight competition. From a blank sheet, I taught a group of students to design, build, structurally test and fly their own aircraft. On our first entry we finished among the top teams from Europe and Asia and were commended by the judges.

I co-founded a motorsport vehicle development operation in Sri Lanka, where I designed and manufactured glass fibre and carbon fibre components and developed the aerodynamics of drag racing cars. It is where I learned composites on the workshop floor, long before I taught them.

As a Lecturer in Aerospace and Aircraft Engineering I led modules in aircraft structures, finite element analysis and engineering mathematics, taught undergraduate and postgraduate students, and supervised numerous projects at both levels, many of them in composite structures. I was also a Visiting Lecturer in vehicle crashworthiness and structural impact at the University of Hertfordshire.

At UWE Bristol I hold a senior role in Manufacturing within the School of Engineering, leading practical teaching in the engineering workshops and composites laboratory. I support the student rocketry and racing teams with composite design and manufacture, working to the standards of professional racecar development and the aerospace industry. Alongside this, I am working to open new international pathways between UWE Bristol and South Asia, through an ongoing project to develop aerospace and space engineering education in Sri Lanka, a country that sits almost on the equator and is ideally placed to reach orbit. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAES) and IMechE, certified in SolidWorks and an expert in ANSYS finite element and composite analysis.

Area of expertise

Composite materials and structures for aerospace, space and motorsport, covering laminate and sandwich panel design, layup, curing, manufacture and mechanical testing. Aircraft structural design and finite element analysis in ANSYS and SolidWorks, validated through strain gauging and structural testing. High temperature materials, including protective coatings and ultra high temperature ceramics for jet engines, hypersonic flight and nuclear environments. Inventor of a novel induction heating coating process now progressing toward patent. Engineering education at undergraduate and postgraduate level as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Publications

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