Niall is a research fellow in Coventry University's institute for future transport and cities. He obtained his PhD at Cranfield University and his bachelor degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Limerick, Ireland. Niall worked as a stress engineer for Bombardier Aerospace where he provided stress substantiation on the global express series of aircraft. He is a member of the editorial board of the international journal of microstructure and materials properties. Niall’s research interests are in the areas of fatigue and fracture mechanics, finite element analysis, advanced materials and structural integrity.

Aircraft manufacturers are under ever increasing pressure to deliver lighter more efficient aircraft. This is partly being achieved through the development of new materials such as advanced composites and next generation metallic materials. However with each new generation of aircraft, manufactures are also attempting to lengthen both the economic life and service life of the aircraft. To achieve these goals requires design of novel structures as well as smarter more efficient use of materials. This will require significant research effort in areas such as structural integrity and damage tolerance over the coming years.

My primary research focus is to develop methodologies to predict the effect on fatigue life of residual stress fields in complicated geometries such as aircraft structural components. Using the developed techniques it will then be possible to determine optimum residual stress fields to enhance fatigue performance.