Plastic and composite technology
The overall research objective is to create the scientific base at all length scales on which the next generation of materials, processing and designs for the fast-growing field of structural polymer and composite will be established. The activity is organized around six research domains:
- Lightweight Design (Conceptual design and materials selection; Structural materials and structures; Multimaterials structures).
- Structural Integrity (Energy dissipative and damage tolerant materials (Fracture Mechanics, Impact, Fatigue); Impact design; Wear).
- Reactive processing based manufacturing of thermoplastic composites (Machinery design; Resin transfer moulding (RTM); Pultrusion; Stamp forming).
- Biopolymers for health (Bioabsorbable materials (nanocomposites and blends); Biocompatible materials for permanent prosthesis).
- Sustainability (Recycling and Recovery; Ecocomposites (natural fibers, biodegradable polymers and materials from renewable sources).
Applications for automotive, civil engineering, machine-tool, home appliances and biomechanics have been developed.
Onging projects
- LIGHTCARBONCARS: Automotive lightweighting by low cost carbon fiber composites.
- CAFI: High fatigue and impact strength carbon fiber composites for automotive industry.
- CRASHINT: Crashworthiness of themoplastic matrix smart composites.
- AutoRTM: Thermoplastic RTM composites for automotive industry.
- MICROINJECT: Microinjection of plastics.
- Design and manufacturing of scaffolds for tissue engineering based on biopolymer nanocomposites.
- 3Rs: Composites from renewable polymer and reinforcements.
Recent publications
- The role of POSS on the thermo-mechanical properties of polyoxymethylene copolymer based nanocomposites [J. Nanosci. Nanotech., acepted 18 Mars 2009].
- Strain rate effect on interlaminar shear strength of carbon fibre reinforced epoxy and pCBT composites [ICCM-17 (2009) Edinburgh].
- Setting up of pull-out test at impact strain rates for SMA wire/pCBT adaptive composite [ICCM-17 (2009) Edinburgh].
- Constitutive model taking into account the strain rate for uniaxial NiTi SMA under low velocity impact conditions [Smart Mater. Struct., 17 (2008) doi:10.1088/0964-1726/17/6/065033].
- Effects of microstructure on wear behaviour of wood reinforced polypropylene composite [Wear 265 (2008) 606].
- Iso-strain rate material behaviour curves applied to the finite element impact simulation [Polym. Testing 27 (2008) 84].
- Electroactive pressure sensors for smart structures [Adv. Sci. Tech. 56 (2008) 122].
- Comparison between the dynamical properties of polymer concrete and grey cast iron for machine tool applications [Mater. Design 28 (2007) 1461].
- Novel all polymer microfluidic devices monolithically integrated within metallic electrodes for SDS-CGE of proteins [J. Micromech. and Microeng. 17 (2007) 1289].
- Effect of dissolution based recycling on the degradation and the mechanical properties of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene [Polym. Degr. Stab. 91 (2006) 2768].
- Failure of multimaterial fusion bonding interface generated during over-injection molding/thermoforming hybrid process [J. App. Polymer Sci. 102 (2006) 261].
- Characterisation of the impact behaviour of polymer thermoplastics [Polym. Testing 24 (2005)145].
Infrastructures
Materials characterization
• Mechanical testing: Instrumented falling weight (4.6 m/s, 70 kg, 755J, -70÷150 ºC) and pendulum impact test, Fatigue (100 kN, -120÷315 ºC), Static tensile/bending/fracture (1÷400 kN) tests, Tribometre.
• Microstructure: Low vacuum SEM, C-SCAN phased array, High and low speed infrared cameras, DSC.
Processing equipment on lab scale
• Plastic: Injection moulding (60 Tm), Mini-injection (maximum load 14 g), Thermoforming (400 x 400 mm2).
• Composite: Thermosetting and thermoplastic RTM, Filament winding, Pultrusion, Stamp forming.
CAD/CAM/CAE
• ABAQUS STANDARD/EXPLICIT, COSMOS, PATRAN/NASTRAN, ESACOMP, MARC.
• CATIA, IDEAS, SOLIDWORKS, UNIGRAPHICS, CES-Edupack.