Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FiBreMoD (Fibre break models for designing novel composite microstructures and applications)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-10-01 bis 2020-09-30
Lightweight materials and fibre-reinforced polymer composites, in particular, are a key enabling technology for industries that develop structural applications and aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the use of their products. Many current composite applications are strongly overdesigned due to a lack of reliable design tools and models to predict their mechanical properties. Developing, using and applying these models require interdisciplinary researchers with a strong background in both modelling and experiments. The FiBreMoD innovative training network brought together 9 beneficiaries and 3 partner organisations to train 13 early-stage researchers to become multi-talented and interdisciplinary researchers highly coveted in the field of composites. They were trained by leading experts in the field, had access to world-class facilities and were supported by a strong industry participation and an extensive international network. The training program placed a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation skills promoting involvement of the researchers in potential commercialization.
The FiBreMoD consortium is proud of the accomplishments its fellows achieved. They have advanced the state-of-the-art composite models to higher levels of accuracy and developed industry-friendly characterisation techniques for measuring input data. The models allow objective predictions, where parameter fitting or tuning of the models is no longer required. With these developments the network staged the 2nd international benchmarking exercise where several external collaborators joined the effort. This benchmarking initiative, which is now finalized, compared predictive capabilities of different models. It used a unique set of material data acquired in the project. The results of this collaborative effort are to appear in two journal articles and the data will be openly available to the community.
FiBreMoD’s research network has proven to be successful in ensuring maximal interactions between partners and providing a holistic approach to achieving its goals. The early-stage researchers and their colleagues produced several innovative results. These include unique data sets for properties of composite constituents, multi-scale models suitable for industrial use, new approaches to account for the presence of defects and time and temperature dependent effects, models to predict the behavior under cyclic loading and high-fidelity ultrafast in-situ computed tomography methodologies for validation of the models. These advances have been applied to design hybrid, bio-inspired and discontinuous fibre composites, as well as practical applications such as pressure vessels for hydrogen storage and automotive parts in direct collaboration with industry.
A patent to protect a novel concept for a bio-inspired composite material has been filed.
FiBreMoD’s research network has proven to be successful in ensuring maximal interactions between partners and providing a holistic approach to achieving its goals. The early-stage researchers and their colleagues produced several innovative results. These include unique data sets for properties of composite constituents, multi-scale models suitable for industrial use, new approaches to account for the presence of defects and time and temperature dependent effects, models to predict the behavior under cyclic loading and high-fidelity ultrafast in-situ computed tomography methodologies for validation of the models. These advances have been applied to design hybrid, bio-inspired and discontinuous fibre composites, as well as practical applications such as pressure vessels for hydrogen storage and automotive parts in direct collaboration with industry.
A patent to protect a novel concept for a bio-inspired composite material has been filed.
All partners have made significant progress beyond the state-of-the-art developments and have advanced the knowledge in the field of composite materials. The European innovation capacity is strengthened by advancing the measurement, prediction and understanding the mechanical behavior of carbon fibre reinforced polymers.
FiBreMoD has integrated PhD studies on the carbon fibre composites throughout Europe. It has created an “invisible college” on this strategically important topic through collaborative research, interconnected secondments and trainings. An important feature of the created network has been strong and active participation of industry and inclusion of the industry in doctoral studies. With such a training researchers have a higher probability to drive innovations and create spin-offs in the future. They will pass on this mindset to their future work environments ensuring a long-lasting effect. During the project researchers were exposed to the international scientific and engineering community via networks of beneficiaries and direct participation in international conferences. They also established their own networks. This international exposure has given them a perfect orientation for their future careers. It is therefore not a surprise that the researchers who finalized their dissertations were successful in securing new positions, some in an academic environment as postdoctoral researchers and some in industry either within the field of composites or in an engineering field benefitting from the developed skillset.
FiBreMoD has integrated PhD studies on the carbon fibre composites throughout Europe. It has created an “invisible college” on this strategically important topic through collaborative research, interconnected secondments and trainings. An important feature of the created network has been strong and active participation of industry and inclusion of the industry in doctoral studies. With such a training researchers have a higher probability to drive innovations and create spin-offs in the future. They will pass on this mindset to their future work environments ensuring a long-lasting effect. During the project researchers were exposed to the international scientific and engineering community via networks of beneficiaries and direct participation in international conferences. They also established their own networks. This international exposure has given them a perfect orientation for their future careers. It is therefore not a surprise that the researchers who finalized their dissertations were successful in securing new positions, some in an academic environment as postdoctoral researchers and some in industry either within the field of composites or in an engineering field benefitting from the developed skillset.