Mr Michael Mauersberger successfully completed his PhD at the ILR

How can the quality of additively manufactured components in the aerospace industry be tested reliably and cost-effectively? Michael Mauersberger addressed this highly topical question in his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Aerospace Engineering (ILR) at TU Dresden and successfully defended it on 19th march 2026.

In his thesis, Michael Mauersberger developed a new method for quality assessment. Using topology optimisation, he identified specific test specimen geometries that accurately replicate critical stress states within the component. What makes this method unique is that it provides reliable quality assessments very early on in the manufacturing process. For the aerospace industry, this opens up new possibilities for making the production of additively manufactured components significantly more cost-effective.

The thesis was supervised and examined by Prof. Dr Johannes Markmiller (Head of the Chair of Aircraft Engineering at the ILR) and Prof. Dr-Ing Andreas Bardenhagen (Institute of Aerospace Engineering, TU Berlin). The interdisciplinary doctoral committee was completed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Harald Pfifer, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Ronald Mailach and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander Brosius. We offer our warmest congratulations on the successful defence!