The Mechanics of Structures and Materials Department is responsible for organizing and supervising all teaching activities in deformable solid mechanics for ISAE-SUPAERO training courses, in synergy with upstream and applied research activities on aeronautical materials and structures. This strong interaction between teaching and research is the foundation of our department's organization.
Our research department
The synergy between teaching and research within the Department of Structural Mechanics and Materials (DMSM) aims to encourage students and associated researchers to develop the know-how and open-mindedness required for innovation and excellence, through a demanding and creative approach.
It relies on teams of professors, research professors and engineers, technical engineers and laboratory administrative staff who anchor the research in the activities of the Clément Ader Institute, who lead and develop the cross-disciplinary themes of the ISAE-Research host team, and who enable the emergence of new areas of applied research at the cutting edge of technological innovation.
The activities of the Structures and Materials Mechanics Department (DMSM) are supported by strong partnerships.
Various research and R&D projects enable ISAE-SUPAERO students and auditors to learn about methods and a working environment that complement the engineering approach taught in the classroom. The projects range from student research projects to major ANR (Agence Nationale pour la Recherche) or FUI (Fond Unique Ministériel) projects, and cover the development phases from pre-project to the production of demonstrators.
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By combining applied research and demanding training, we prepare engineers capable of innovation. Thanks to the many partnerships we are developing, they are exposed to the real challenges of engineering, developing the creativity, rigour and adaptability essential to their future profession.
Catherine Mabru Head of DepartmentOur research activities
Along with the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of the University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier and the INSA, and the Centre de Recherche Outillages Matériaux et Procédés of the École des Mines d’Albi, ISAE-SUPAERO’s DMSM is one ofthe three founding members of the Institut de Génie Mécanique de Toulouse, which has become theInstitut Clément Ader, a CNRS Joint Research Unit (UMR CNRS 5312 ICA).
The research carried out at the DMSM aims todevelop methods and tools for the design of aerospace structures for use by engineers. In order to respond as effectively as possible to the constantly evolving needs of industry and research, it is structured around three key themes which anchor the research activities within three Groups of theInstitut Clément Ader (ICA) and enable the emergence of emerging themes open to collaboration and exchanges with outside ISAE-SUPAERO and outside the ICA. These activities also feed into two cross-disciplinary themes within ISAE-SUPAERO:
- Multidisciplinary Optimisation (MDO),
- Fluid-Structure Couplings (FSI).
The DMSM’s three research themes form a bridge with the Modelling and Dimensioning teaching blocks in the Common Core and with the courses in the three Structure and Materials pathways in the 3ᵉ year of engineering training, and with Masters courses.
Durability and damage tolerance of composite and metallic materials
Research themes
The aim of this research is to gain a better understanding of damage to composite and metallic materials under impact, crash and fatigue conditions.
Static and dynamic modelling and qualification of aerospace structures
Research themes
The research is mainly focused on the development of models, methodologies and strategies for the deterministic or uncertain modelling of structures.
Design & simulation driven by multi-physics requirements
Research themes
This theme focuses on the development of methods, models and strategies for modelling structures and materials in order to verify performance, qualification or certification requirements.
Asai Gustavo, Jansari Chintan, Lachaud Frédéric, Masania Kunal, Morlier Joseph, Ecodesign of 3D volumetric fiber-composite structures with topology optimization. 2025,...
A Review on Metallic Drilling Burrs: Geometry, Formation, and Effect on the Mechanical Strength of Metallic AssembliesFRUTOS TARAVILLO, Santiago, Paroissien Eric, Landon Yann, Schwartz Sébastien, Fressinet Mathieu, Chirol Clément, A Review on Metallic Drilling Burrs: Geometry,...
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Aerostructural optimization of high-aspect-ratio wings: navigating complex trade-offs : AeroBest 2025 – III ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on MultidiscipSY, Ousmane, Morlier Joseph, Bénard Emmanuel, Aerostructural optimization of high-aspect-ratio wings: navigating complex trade-offs : AeroBest 2025 – III ECCOMAS...
Our resources and means
Our teams
The DMSM is made up of :
- a scientific team made up of permanent staff (1 researcher and 17 teacher-researchers, including 11 HDRs) supervising non-permanent staff (doctoral students, post-doctoral students, engineers recruited under fixed-term contracts);
- a Laboratory Technical Group (GTL) comprising 8 engineers, technicians and test and instrumentation staff. This group works both at the DMSM site of the Pôle Mécanique and at the Espace Clément Ader within UMR 5312 ;
- a Mechanical Technology Group (GTM), also made up of 8 engineers, technicians and design & manufacturing staff, working in the DMSM workshop to serve the technological missions of all ISAE-SUPAERO departments. Like the GTL, it supports both educational work (student projects) and R&D (design and production of assemblies), while also coordinating forward-looking manufacturing activities;
- a departmental management unit comprising the departmental executive assistant and the departmental management assistant;
- a methods and digital tools development engineer for mechanics working for the above groups, team and unit.
In addition to these 37 permanent staff, there are on average around forty PhD students, post-doctoral fellows, project engineers, around twenty M2 or M1 level trainees and 5 visiting or associate professors (TU Delft, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal), bringing the DMSM workforce to around 100 people, spread over the ISAE-SUPAERO and Institut Clément Ader sites.
Thescientific team carries out teaching and research activities.
The teaching given primarily at ISAE-SUPAERO is described in the DMSM curriculum.
Research activities feed into three scientific themes strongly anchored in three of the four groups of the Institut Clément Ader (UMR CNRS 5312, MSC, MS2M, and SUMO), and two transversal themes in partnership with other departments within ISAE-SUPAERO.
Links with the administrative and technical team are established through teaching and research. Composite manufacturing courses, for example, are offered in the 2ᵉ and 3ᵉ year of engineering training and as part of PREX (experimental practical work).
These courses are based on dual supervision by the scientific team and technical groups.
They enable future engineers to make the link between scientific teaching and practical reality, and to handle in very concrete terms the structures and materials they are designing.
This duality is also the framework offered to all ISAE-SUPAERO students for academic research, innovation and creativity projects.
Thetechnical and administrative team is organised around a Laboratory Technical Group (GTL) and a Mechanical Technology Group (GTM), each supervised by a Technical Manager.
The groups are placed under the authority of the Head of Department, at the service of ISAE-SUPAERO and in particular the research activities of the DMSM.
Laboratory Technical Group
This technical group is in charge of and operates the materials and structures testing and analysis platform. It has a range of platforms and resources, including some remarkable experimental facilities.
The equipment is distributed between the ISAE SUPAERO campus and the Toulouse Montaudran site of the Institut Clément Ader (ICA UMR CNRS 5312).
Mechanical Engineering Group
This group is responsible for mechanical and composite engineering and manufacturing.
Its activities meet the technological and experimental needs of ISAE-SUPAERO. This group manages the workshop and places its qualified staff at the service of all ISAE-SUPAERO departments, their activities and their research projects, in particular for academic or research projects led by the DMSM scientific team.
This team is based on the ISAE-SUPAERO campus.
Our technical resources and responsibilities
The DMSM has classic manufacturing, experimentation and analysis resources which are made available to students and researchers from the Institut Clément Ader (UMR CNRS 5312) and ISAE-SUPAERO.
More specific and remarkable resources have also been developed and studied for research activities.
- A mechanical testing platform: 10kN to 100kN static tests, 2.5kN to 250kN fatigue tests, structural tests,
- A dynamic testing platform: vibration tests, Hopkinson bars,
- An Analysis and Control platform: electronic and optical microscopy, ultrasonic NDT, metrology (3D digitisation, surface finish, hardness testers),
- An instrumentation platform: high-speed cameras, image stereo-correlation (optical extensometry), high-speed acquisition, measurement sensors.
Specific equipment and fixtures can be developed to equip these resources for specific experiments that are not common.
- A 10kN vibrator for vibration testing, equipped with a laser vibrometer with derotator: The vibrator is ideal for vibration and mechanical shock testing using sinusoidal, random or transient excitation. The frequency range extends from 5 Hz to 3000 Hz.
- Gas launchers for rapid impact of balls on materials and structures, 150 m/s, 30 kJ, equipped with high-speed cameras: this equipment can be used to study impact dynamics and assess the penetration or perforation resistance performance of materials and structures.
- Drop towers, including a high tower for instrumented impact on materials and structures, height 6m, 10 m/s, guided carriages from 2kg to 250kg, 14.7 kJ: this equipment is used to carry out low-speed impact or crushing tests on materials or small structures. A guided carriage impacts or carries away a specimen structure at the bottom of the fall trajectory. Several set-ups are available depending on the test problem: standardised impact, crash, dynamic compression, etc.
- A space vacuum chamber to test the behaviour of space-related materials and components in a thermal vacuum: in space conditions (secondary vacuum 10-6 mbar and temperature -80°C to +150°C), the behaviour of electronic equipment in operation or materials can be assessed.
- A nanoindenter to characterise the surface layers of materials, 0.1 to 500mN: this is used to determine the mechanical properties (hardness and elastic modulus) of thin films, coatings and substrates on most materials.
- a laser metal deposition (LMD) machine for metal additive manufacturing.
- a Wire Arc Additive Manufaturing (WAAM) machine.
The DMSM has servers and computing stations running under LINUX and Windows environments, and has access via the Institut Clément Ader (UMR CNRS 5312) to the CALMIP computing centre for massively parallel computing. It also uses the PANDO supercomputer at ISAE-SUPAERO.
The DMSM uses the commercial calculation codes of its research partners and in-house codes for its own scientific evaluation or non-intrusive coupling needs: Abaqus ®, Nastran ®, Samcef ®, Radioss ®, LS-Dyna ®, Europlexus ®, Impetus Afea Solver ®.
Our lessons
The teaching activities of the Structural Mechanics and Materials Department cover the scientific disciplines relating to solid mechanics, including the fundamental subjects of general mechanics and continuous media.
Structures – and in particular thin structures – are the subject of developments in static, dynamic, vibratory or transient and thermal analysis, leading on the one hand to the certification of aerospace-type structures, and on the other hand to the use and qualification of metallic and composite structural materials within structural elements.
The skills, facilities and resources of the DMSM are made available to the solid mechanics training unit:
- ISAE-SUPAERO generalist engineering training,
- the industrial engineering speciality through apprenticeships
- the “Science for the Mechanics of Materials and Structures” research course in the Mechanical Engineering Masters at the University of Toulouse,
- the ‘ Aerospace Structures Major’ and ‘Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering (AHE)’ programmes in the Master in Aerospace Engineering (MAE),
- and the AES ‘Aeronautical and Space Structures’ and TAS ‘Techniques aéronautiques & spatiales ‘ Specialised Masters® programmes.
The DMSM’s lecturers structure and lead teams of part-time lecturers who are involved in teaching and in monitoring the various student projects: introduction to research, experimental work, end-of-study projects, often carried out in synergy with the department’s theses.
The DMSM coordinates more than 150 part-time teachers from industry and training, research and development institutions.
The DMSM training programme in the engineering curriculum is divided into Scientific Core courses (116 hours) and Elective modules (11 modules, 320 hours) in the 1st and 2nd years, which give engineering students the ability to interact with specialists in the mechanics of materials and structures and to understand complex, cross-disciplinary approaches to design.
- In the first year
Experimental practice is an integral part of the analysis and modelling approach in solid mechanics. In order to initiate students and prepare them for autonomy in experimental practice, but also to make them aware of and autonomous in the analysis of test data and results, enabling them to understand the limits of validity of a modelling approach, Experimental Practice Projects (PrEx) are offered in year 1ʳᵉ of the engineering curriculum.
- In the second year
Introductory research projects (PIR) are an opportunity for students to get to grips with research methods and tools. The subjects proposed are directly linked to the department's research activities.
Between the second and third years, the DMSM is responsible for the gap year internships.
- In the third year
The DMSM offers students the opportunity to specialise in three courses in its Structures and Materials programme.
After following the Common Core courses, engineering students can consolidate their knowledge and skills in the scientific themes covered by the DMSM: Numerical Mechanics, Aeronautical and Space Materials, Aeronautical and Space Structures.
Some of the modules validate an option of the " Science for the Mechanics of Materials and Structures " research path of the Mechanical Engineering Master's degree at the University of Toulouse, and thus validate their research skills with a view to carrying out a thesis (in a laboratory, CIFRE, etc.).
Officer cadets from the Saudi Arabian Army are welcomed for a two-year certificate at the DMSM. They are prepared during the first year on the three-year engineering curriculum, then enrol in the M2 preparation for the AHE Master's degree.
The DMSM supervises and runs four Master's courses in the ISAE-SUPAERO training offer.
Master's training is at the heart of the DMSM's welcome to students not following engineering training and wishing to train for careers in the aeronautics and space sector. The Masters course is open to an equivalent number of students, and welcomes non-French and non-French-speaking students from all over the world on a selective basis.
- The ' Aerospace Structures Major ' programme in the Aerospace Engineering specialism (MSc in Aerospace Engineering, MAE) at the Toulouse campus is aimed at students with a Bachelor's degree from a foreign university. It offers a two-year course in the mechanics of aerospace materials and structures. The courses are taught in English.
- The Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering programme is also offered as part of the MSc in Aerospace Engineering (MAE). This programme is aimed at students with a Bachelor's degree. It aims to bring students up to Master of Science level (BAC+5) in helicopter design and maintenance engineering. Courses are taught in English.
The DMSM supervises and runs four Master's courses in the ISAE-SUPAERO training offer.
Master's training is at the heart of the DMSM's welcome to students who do not follow engineering training and wish to train for careers in the aeronautics and space sector. The Master's programme is open to the same number of students, and welcomes non-French and non-French-speaking students from all over the world on a selective basis.
- The Specialised Master® in Aeronautical and Space Structures offers ISAE-SUPAERO students with a Master of Sciences (BAC+5) level 'Structures' training. Some courses are shared with the engineering curriculum and others - particularly those oriented towards methods, tools and projects, are derived from the 3ᵉ year Materials and Structures course of the engineering curriculum. The majority of courses are delivered in French.
- The AMPAS Specialised Masters® " Advanced Manufacturing Processes for Aeronautical Structures " aims to train Master of Science level (BAC+5) auditors in aeronautical structure manufacturing methods and processes and production organisation. This Master's degree is awarded jointly with Mines d'Albi. Courses are taught in English.
Our research facilities
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Directory
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Researcher
Pages
ResearchAt ISAE-SUPAERO, we conduct cutting-edge research in the service of innovation, technological sovereignty and the ecological transition of the aerospace sector, thereby affirming our role as a leading player in the scientific and industrial community.
DAEP
DCAS
DEOS
News
MMX, Idefix® and cameras to understand Mars' moonStudying the formation and origin of Mars' moons and bringing back samples: this is the extraordinary, ambitious international mission led by JAXA, in which ISAE-SUPAERO is participating alongside CNES.
DEOS
Researcher
Space
Pages
“Space Systems for Planetology and Applications” (SSPA) scientific groupThe “Space Systems for Planetology and Applications” (SSPA) scientific group focuses on one main area of research: the development of missions and associated technologies for geophysical exploration of the solar system.
DEOS
Doctoral student
PhD
News
ISAE-SUPAERO publishes an aviation and climate reportSustainability
Teacher researcher
Pages
Lasbordes Air Operations Center (COAL)The Design and Operation of Aeronautical and Space Vehicles Department (DCAS) is part of the Lasbordes Air Operations Center (COAL), located on an airfield a few kilometers from the ISAE-SUPAERO campus. As part of its aeronautical training and research activities, COAL operates a fleet of 9 light aircraft.
DCAS
Doctoral student
PhD
News
HACKATHON Data Sciences: AI in action!From February 24 to 26, forty-five students will explore three topical issues involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) during a three-day hackathon. The student teams involved will attempt to meet the challenges posed by three industrial partners on the themes of the environment, industrialization and digitization technology. ISAE-SUPAERO confirms its commitment to training in data science and artificial intelligence through its Decision and Data Sciences (DDS) course.
AI
Artificial intelligence
Hackathon
News
Meeting with Yves Gourinat, elected as a full member of the Air and Space AcademyYves Gourinat is a professor of structural physics in the Structural Mechanics and Materials Department (DMSM) at ISAE-SUPAERO. Already a corresponding member since 2019, he has just been elected a full member of the French Academy of Aeronautics and Space.
Aeronautics
Award
Teacher researcher