Avery Banks

Avery Banks

Biography

Avery Banks is a rising senior at Washington University in St. Louis studying Mechanical
Engineering, with research interests in aerospace materials and guidance, navigation, and control
systems. In summer 2024, he worked at the CHROME Aerospace Lab, where he developed an
autonomous robotic lab tour guide programmed for obstacle avoidance, voice recognition, and
interactive engagement. Last summer, he conducted research in MIT’s necstlab, manufacturing aligned
carbon nanotube nanocomposites for thermal protection systems, including ablative heat shields for
spacecraft. This summer, Avery is returning to necstlab through MSRP to develop ultrathin Tailored
Antisymmetric Composite laminates, which use controlled laminate asymmetry to reduce ply count
while enabling extension–bending and bend–twist couplings for improved mechanical performance.
Beyond research, Avery runs a tutoring company for students in underserved communities, serves as
vice president of WashU’s NSBE chapter, and conducts acoustofluidic research at WashU. He is excited
to begin the graduate school application process this fall.

Approaching the Thickness Limit of Tailored Antisymmetric Composites via the Bulk
Nanocomposite Laminating Process
Avery Banks1, Armando Neto2, Marianna Rogers2, and Brian Wardle2,3
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis
2Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The aerospace industry is increasingly driven toward thinner, lighter composite structures, yet
traditional balanced-symmetric laminates often meet stiffness and damage-tolerance requirements
by stacking multiple sub-laminates, increasing thickness, mass, and manufacturing complexity.
Tailored Antisymmetric Composites (TACs) offer an alternative architecture by using controlled
asymmetry to achieve mechanical performance with reduced ply count, extension–bending coupling,
and bend–twist coupling. However, the lower thickness limit of TAC architectures remains poorly
understood, particularly for nanostructured systems where processing, handling, and polymer infiltration
become challenging. Here, we fabricate ultrathin TAC laminates using the bulk nanocomposite
laminating (BNL) process, in which carbon nanotube (CNT) forests are mechanically knocked down,
densified, and infused with an EPON 862 epoxy matrix to form horizontally aligned CNT/EPON
nanocomposites. Both hard and soft TAC configurations are manufactured to examine how stiffness
regime influences mechanical response at ultrathin dimensions. The laminates will be characterized
through thickness measurements, microscopy, tensile testing, and bend–twist testing to evaluate
structural quality, mechanical properties, warping, and predicted deformation behavior. This work will
assess the feasibility of BNL processing for ultrathin TAC architectures and establish a foundation for
nanostructured asymmetric composites in lightweight, thickness-limited aerospace structures.