Category: Composite Materials

Success Through Alignment

Posted on by jo.rich

A test idea was developed into a confirmed proof-of-concept with experimental results in 3 months. We co-created a quick testing method for recycled carbon fibre material, reducing test time from hours to minutes.

Lineat Composites: Lourens Blok, Gary Owen

University of Bristol: Axel Wowogno, Robin Hartley, Benoit Welch, James Kratz

Background

Lineat is a BCI spin-out creating a new recycled carbon fibre material by re-aligning chopped waste fibres into highly aligned fibre tapes that mimic the architecture of virgin continuous fibre materials. The process is well suited to deliver carbon fibre materials circularity needed to meet Net Zero. An Accelerated Knowledge Transfer project was awarded by Innovate UK to evaluate what can be achieved through academic/business collaborations.

Challenge

Short aligned fibre materials can reach similar performance as continuous fibre materials, but it is highly dependent on the level of fibre alignment which can be more variable than long fibre materials. As a consequence, variable fibre orientation may arise leading to reduced volume fraction, leading to undesirable properties. A relatively high compaction force may mitigate some of these issues, but can also be an indicator of alignment quality. In this project, Lineat and Bristol worked together to evaluate if a quick and easy compaction test can reduce cumbersome quality control processes from hours to minutes.

Outcome

Lineat made a selection of recycled short carbon fibre tapes to varying degrees of alignment. The materials were prepared into samples and tested at the University of Bristol to identify the best set-up for a potential quality assurance process. The different test methods were assessed for ease of implementation. The methods were able to successfully discern poorly aligned materials straight away, however, medium and well aligned materials initially seemed similar and required development of an alignment indicator (see Figure 1). Mechanical tests and microstructure observations were used to confirm the alignment results.

 

The project performed three main activities with over 100 experimental tests performed over three months:

1) Develop a compaction test method – A compaction test method was developed and tested at different conditions to indicate alignment.

2) Perform compaction and sample testing –  Once the method was set, the compaction response was measured for different material alignment levels.

3) Correlate properties with fibre alignment – Fibre microstructure and mechanical properties were measured to demonstrate statistical relevance as quality indicator.

Impact

An innovative quality control test to quickly and accurately indicate the level of fibre alignment in recycled short carbon fibre tapes made by Lineat. Initial settings for test sample preparation, testing machine configuration, data analysis instructions, and representative plots for comparison were developed for the business.

Lineat has started an internal project to implement the test method into their production environment and use the testing method to improve manufacturing processes. The outcome is expected to have a significant influence on the uptake of recycled carbon fibre materials.

Bristol Scientists conduct composite experiments beyond the Kármán line, or Ad Astra and all that jazz…

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Today, Tuesday 5 November 2024, the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida saw the dramatic launch of a Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting at an average altitude of 408 kilometres in low Earth orbit (LEO). At a cost of $52M, the SpX-31 commercial resupply mission is carrying a Cargo Dragon CRS-2 space craft, which will dock in the forward Harmony port of the ISS and deliver its payload, containing essential supplies for the astronauts and a number of experiments designed for operation in LEO.

The dramatic launch of a Falcon 9 reusable, two-stage rocket, designed and manufactured by SpaceX. The image shown is the CRS-30 commercial resupply service mission to the ISS, the Falcon 9 carried a host of supplies and integral equipment including science investigations and crew supplies. Image credit: courtesy of SpaceX, original image Ben Cooper.

 

Mission Patch of the SpX-31 commercial resupply mission to the ISS, representing a Cargo Dragon spacecraft, serial number C208, which is making its fifth flight on this mission. Image credit: NASA

 

The successful launch marks a significant milestone for the multidisciplinary research team led by Professor Ian Hamerton of the Bristol Composites Institute (BCI). It represents the culmination of over four years of intensive research to develop new materials for the space environment and the result of significant new collaborations between the BCI, the European Space Agency (ESA), the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the National Composites Centre (NCC), Oxford Space Systems, and Rolls-Royce plc.

In the late summer of 2020, ESA launched an international competition (AO-2020-EMA) to identify participants for a £3.5M Euro Materials Ageing mission to study the behaviour of new materials in space and BCI was one of 15 teams selected after a rigorous multi-stage peer review process. The Euro Material Ageing experimental platform (SESAME – Scientific Exploration Subsurface Access Mechanism for Europa), developed by the French Space Agency (CNES) and manufactured by COMAT, will be deployed by a robotic arm on the Bartolomeo platform designed and operated by Airbus (https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-01-esa-books-two-payload-missions-on-airbus-bartolomeo-platform), which is located on the front (the RAM face) of the ISS.

 

This mosaic depicts the International Space Station (ISS) pictured from the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour during a fly around of the orbiting lab that took place following its undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port on Nov. 8, 2021. The red ringed area indicates the likely location of the SESAME module on the Bartolomeo platform. Original image credit NASA (jsc2021e064215_alt (Dec. 8, 2021), photograph taken by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet)

 

 

Preparation of one of the Euro Material Ageing’s experiments for launch. The COMAT designed SESAME module holds specimens selected and tested by ESA, supplied by 15 international research teams with the UoB samples shown in the inset image. Original image credit: Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales/COMAT.

 

Four new polymers, designed by Prof. Hamerton and developed within PhD projects in BCI, were prepared as carbon fibre reinforced composites and submitted to the ESA team at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) based in Noordwijk in the Netherlands for pre-flight tests. During these tests, the laminate samples were exposed to high vacuum and temperature cycling (to determine whether they would lose excessive mass in LEO) and to high intensity ultraviolet radiation (to find out whether they would discolour significantly, thus changing their thermal properties); fortunately, the specimens passed the pre-flight tests with flying colours.

The preparation of the composites on a much larger scale (typical panels measured 500 mm x 500 mm x 3 mm), to enable detailed mechanical tests to be performed in BCI, was funded by the UKSA (in the form of two grants ST/W000377/1 and ST/W004992/1) and undertaken by the team at the NCC. Although BCI has its own in-house autoclave and workshop facilities, when the pressure was on to deliver the precisely engineered composites to ETSEC with a short deadline the NCC was the natural choice of manufacturing partner. The development of the polymer matrices, the results of their exposure to simulated LEO conditions, and the mechanical testing have been published in a series of research publications (see further reading).

The novel composites will be in for a rough ride: the ISS will orbit the Earth some 6,000 times in a year at speeds of 17,000 miles per hour and the space environment is fierce, the temperatures could range from -150ºC to +120ºC, causing small cracks to form, and the samples will be exposed to high vacuum, severe electromagnetic radiation, and the ravaging effects of atomic oxygen which literally erodes the surface of materials that are exposed to it. It’s also crowded as there are already more than 8.8 kilotonnes of human-deposited mass in orbit. More than 30,000 space debris objects are larger than 10 cm, around 900,000 objects larger than 1 cm, 128 million pieces of debris around 1 mm, and 2 trillion pieces of debris around 0.1 mm.  As a result, the specimens might also encounter high-velocity dust, micro-meteoroids, and engineering debris. To counter this, another line of current PhD research in BCI is developing variants of the same polymers that are potentially capable of healing themselves, with the aim of improving their ability to resist microcracking.

During the EMA campaign, real-time mass loss data will be collected to assess how the materials perform, and these will be used to validate analytical models currently being developed within one of the PhD projects to predict the lifetime of composites deployed in LEO. Prof. Kate Robson Brown, who leads the development of these computational models, has recently moved from the University of Bristol to take up a new position Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, extending the collaboration still further.

She says “After nearly five years of research to develop novel composite materials for space applications it is very exciting to see our experiment launch to the International Space Station. I am proud to be part of this mission, and to be working with the mulltidisciplinary and multisector research team to deliver integrated real world and digital testing for innovative materials which will help to drive growth in the new space economy. This mission also demonstrates how space research funding creates career changing opportunities for early career researchers and PhD students in a sector of huge value to both Ireland and the UK.”

After a year or more of exposure in space, the samples will be returned to Earth, allowing scientists at BCI and in the other teams to thoroughly investigate the samples and fully understand the effects of the space environment on the materials, offering some validation of the newly-developed predictive models. However, the samples that have started their arduous journey to the ISS are not the end of the story. Virgil wrote, in his Aeneid, “sic itur ad astra”, thus one journeys to the stars, and the team is focused on the developing materials for the next generation of space travel. The BCI team is conducting research in another ESA programme (AO-2022-IBPER) to investigate the biological and physical effects of radiation on the composites, and team members have recently returned from a research visit to The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany where the effects of long term galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) exposure can be simulated here on Earth. In another affiliated PhD project, polymer variants are being developed for their shielding characteristics towards GCR, inevitable in the longer space missions that are part of the plans of many space agencies, but potentially deadly to the future astronauts.

Research conducted on Earth under simulated exposure conditions is undoubtedly valuable but the opportunity to test the materials in the real proving ground of space is priceless and will help university scientists on the ground improve fibre-reinforced materials for next-generation space missions. The opportunity to participate in these high-profile ESA missions, with the generous support of the UKSA, has been an exciting dream come true for the academics and early career researchers in the team. By linking PhD programmes to the mission has offered the researchers at the very start of their careers the opportunity to be involved in cutting edge space research programmes.

The space materials team: L-R Gökhan Sancak, George Worden, Fabrizio Scarpa, Stuart Donovan-Holmes, Kate Robson Jones, Ali Kandemir, Ian Hamerton, Kyungil Kong, Mayra Yadira Rivera Lopez (members not pictured: Mark Schenk, Joseph Gargiuli, Yanjun He, James Thomas, Ragnar Birgisson, Lucas Lu, Galina Teshovska, Anton Stoger, Konstantina Kanari, Nick Hewlings, Alex Mathers).

 

The team gratefully acknowledges funding from the following bodies: ESA (AO-2020-EMA and AO-2022-IBPER), UKSA (ST/W000377/1, ST/W004992/1, ST/Z000343/1), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L016028/1 and EP/S021728/1), DSTL (DSTL0000020016) and Oxford Space Systems (in the form of a studentship).

 

The Teams

The Bristol Composites Institute (BCI) is one of seven Specialist Research Institutes of the University of Bristol and a world leader in composites research. Established in March 2017 in a dedicated £5.4M extension within the Faculty of Engineering, the BCI builds on the expertise and the 10-year track record of the Advanced Composites Collaboration for Innovation and Science (ACCIS) research group which preceded it. BCI has since grown to become the largest composites research group in the world; it boasts a world leading and cohesive core team of over 30 academics, 32 affiliated academic staff, 50 support staff, and over 150 researchers, and has world class experimental lab facilities enabling cutting edge research in advanced composite materials development, innovative manufacturing and design techniques, and composites testing. The BCI hosts the Rolls-Royce Composites UTC, the Wind Blade Research Hub, two EPSRC-funded Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Composites, and the EPSRC Industrial Doctoral Centre in Composites Manufacture. Strong links exist between BCI and the National Composites Centre (NCC), which was opened in 2011 and is hosted by the University. The NCC is a not-for-profit research and training organisation which is an independent, open-access national centre translating world-renowned innovation into manufacturing excellence.

Space research and engineering is a well established at UCD, led by C-Space -Ireland’s leading centre for interdisciplinary collaborative space-related research, innovation and education. UCD has identified four key established and emerging trends as priorities; Foundational Space Research (addressing fundamental scientific mysteries of the universe, pushing the boundaries of pure knowledge and space exploration); Data-Driven Space Research and Innovation (applying AI, machine learning and data science to optimise space missions, accelerate scientific discovery and develop accessible platforms for EO programmes); Society, Ethics and Policy in Space (engaging with social sciences, business and law to address the societal, governance and legal implications of space exploration and commercialisation); Space Systems Engineering and Technology Development (advancing the design, development and deployments of space technologies including spacecraft, payloads and subsystems supporting space missions and the commercialisation of space).

 

Further Reading

Why Space? The Opportunity for Materials Science and Innovation, version 1.2.1, M. Lappa, I. Hamerton, P.C.E. Roberts, A. Kao, M. Domingos, H. Soorghali, P. Carvil (Eds.), STFC and UK Sat Apps, February 2024. (including Considerations for Material Development and Manufacturing in Space, Hamerton, I., Roberts, P. & Carvil, P. pp. 35-40).

Bristol researchers prepare composites for lift-off to space, Andrea Gaini, 8 July 2021, https://www.iom3.org/resource/on-course-sending-composites-into-space.html

University of Bristol, NCC develop novel composite materials to assess performance in space, G. Nehls, 7/7/2021, https://www.compositesworld.com/news/university-of-bristol-ncc-develop-novel-composite-materials-to-assess-performance-in-space

Effect of atomic oxygen exposure on polybenzoxazine/POSS nanocomposites for space applications, He, Y., Suliga, A., Brinkmeyer, AW., Schenk, M. & Hamerton, I., 2024, In: Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing. 177, 107898. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2023.107898

Physical and mechanical properties of nano-modified polybenzoxazine nanocomposite laminates: Pre-flight tests before exposure to low Earth orbit, Kong, K., Gargiuli, J. F., Kanari, K., Rivera Lopez, M. Y., Thomas, J., Worden, G., Lu, L., Cooper, S., Donovan-Holmes, S., Mathers, A., Hewlings, N., Suliga, A., Wessing, J., Vincent-Bonnieu, S., Robson Brown, K. & Hamerton, I., 20 Feb 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Composites Part B: Engineering. 111311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2024.111311

Development of cyanate ester-oligosiloxane copolymers for deployable satellite applications, Rivera Lopez, M. Y., Suliga, A., Scarpa, F. & Hamerton, I., 11 Dec 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Polymer. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2023.126573

Development of cycloaliphatic epoxy-POSS nanocomposite matrices with enhanced resistance to atomic oxygen, Rivera Lopez, M. Y., Lambas, J., Stacey, J. P., Gamage, S., Suliga, A., Viquerat, A., Scarpa, F. & Hamerton, I., 25 Mar 2020, In: Molecules. 25, 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25071483

HyPower Bristol’s development of a 5kN bipropellant liquid rocket engine and supporting liquid feed system

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HyPower Bristol are a team of students from the BristolSEDS society, working on building and launching cutting edge student sounding rockets since 2020. Last year we entered the 2023 EUROC competition, which is held in annually in Ponte de Sor, Portugal. This Europe wide competition is hosted by the Portuguese Space Agency and brings the best rocketry teams from universities across the continent, including Delft, TUM and of course, University of Bristol. Our compact team managed to achieve 3rd place in the ‘Off the shelf’ solid motor category last year and have since built towards even greater engineering challenges for this year’s EUROC 2024 competition.

Following conversations with the Portuguese Space Agency last year, we have embarked on the ambitious development of a 5kN bipropellant liquid rocket engine and supporting liquid feed system. This engine will run on with isopropanol fuel and nitrous oxide oxidiser, exhausting the 19L of propellant tanks in under 6s.

To meet our goals of flying this liquid engine at the EUROC 24 competition, we have had to flight test many new aspects of our design throughout the year such as control electronics and software. To easily make these flight tests, we started the year by manufacturing a half size sized “sub scale” rocket which uses a hybrid metallic/ composite structure.

In this design, the lower carbon section is made up of removeable panels which bolt into an underlying metallic frame, facilitating quick access to the electronics under test. The carbon parts are made with a wet layup of Prime 37 and 600gsm triaxial carbon, and the glass parts used biaxial plane weave E-glass. The parts were laid on to aluminium tools and cured under vacuum. The laminates have not been optimised for mass and are quasi-isotropic, as the requirements of the test vehicle call for high reliability and spare thrust budget is available. A focus of the EUROC 2025 programme will be minimisation of mass through an optimised fully composite structure.

The fin section has been designed to be removeable which allows the testing of different fin configurations and adjusts the rocket’s mass distribution. For this part, individual fins were first laid up using 3d printed aerofoil moulds, before being aligned and bonded to a section of carbon tube. Further uni-directional carbon was then applied between the tips of adjacent fins to reinforce the bonded joints and suppress aeroelastic fin “flutter” which is a common failure mode for similar unstiffened fins. The structure has been flown twice this year and has proven very reliable: this was exemplified by a failed parachute deployment and subsequent drop from 250m which only required the replacement of a single fin. These launches have demonstrated the many systems including robust telemetry and our inflight deployed air brakes which will allow us to control to a specified altitude in Portugal.

The launches have also been key to developing our test procedures and checklists for the future flights. Depending on funding availability, we would like to conduct a final set of launches in September to trial additional functionality with our custom electronics.

Following our work on the test vehicle, we have begun manufacturing the full-size entry for Portugal. The airframe design will be similar to the subscale, with an internal metallic structure to mount valves and electronics, and a stressed carbon panel skin which prevents buckling but still allows quick access to the propulsion system. Our initial design held propellant in commercially available COPVs, however these were difficult to package and would cause the vehicle to be over 5m long. We have therefore developed an aluminium coaxial propellant tank, which minimises the vehicle length by using the entire cross section to store propellant and passes the inertial and aerodynamic flight loads through the tank wall. Despite the less efficient material, this tank option reduces the total mass by more than 5kg by reducing the vehicle length to 3.5m.

The composite manufacture has begun with experiments using low-cost foam tooling, this has been successful for the panel sections. The next step will be manufacture of tube sections, however the internal surface is more critical for these parts, and we will need to see if we can achieve an adequately flat finish for bonding to the metallic and polymer adapters. We recently received the 3d printed Inconel chamber, and the machined propellant tank components are nearly ready for test.

We have also had the opportunity to work with the AENGM0050 Design, Build, and Test unit this year to develop a highly efficient payload mounting structure. This design has been inspired by sea sponge skeletons found in nature and manufactured with prepreg carbon tape. The structure has been built by the students and successfully tested far in excess of the loads that will be experienced in flight. The structure will support our 1kg stack of 3 cube satellites during flight in Portugal.

Some members of the team have also recently built an entry to the UK high powered rocketry competition which took place in Scotland last year. For this we constructed a simple fibreglass airframe based on tape wrapped glass tubes. This rocket hit its target apogee of 2200m and set a new Bristol speed record of 1030km/h and then safely returned on computer deployed parachutes, winning us the UK title.

Our next steps for this design cycle are to pressure test the propellant tank and perform an integrated hot-fire which will prove the engine, propellant loading system, and remote control system. The team would like to say an enormous thank you to the BCI community for supporting us in our rocket journey so far, and we hope you are as excited as us to see what we manage in Portugal!

If you have any thoughts about our design or perhaps can think of a way to support us, please feel free to reach out to lk2093@bristol.ac.uk and hypowerbristol@gmail.com

Follow our journey here: LinkedIn or Instagram and https://euroc.pt/  to learn more about the EUROC competition.

Lillian, Jacob, and the HyPower Bristol Team.

 

Unique Modelling Capability for Composite Manufacturing

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The National Composite Centre (NCC) held an event focused on ‘Demystifying Digital Engineering’ on 23 March. This was an opportunity for guests to view and interact with a range of digital technology and skills demonstrators that accelerate engineering transformation, identifying efficiencies in product, process and technology development. This will inspire the next generation of engineers to engage with tools developed in the DETI (Digital Engineering Technology & Innovation) R&D initiative.

The Bristol Composites Institute (BCI) demonstrated a simulation tool that provides uniquely fast, and accurate simulations for the manufacturing of composite components. The automated simulation tools developed are available for industry use from BCI and the NCC, which results in significant cost savings per part by reducing the need for physical trials, which could in turn eliminate one or more design cycles. The University of Bristol also contributed to DETI with 5G work on Enabling Quantum-secure 5G enabled Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for manufacturing, through the Smart Internet Lab, and the challenge of Enabling the Digital Thread in small engineering projects in work between CFMS and the University’s Engineering Systems and Design Institute.

People looking at the BCI stand at the event  People sat watching a presentation in a conference room

BCI Doctoral Research Symposium 2023

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On 4 April 2023 the Bristol Composites Institute (BCI) welcomed over 100 delegates from academia and industry to the Bill Brown Design Suite, Queen’s Building, for its annual Doctoral Research Symposium.

Attendees of BCI Symposium listening to a presentation

Doctoral students from the BCI, including 38 students from the EPSRC CDT in Composites Science, Engineering and Manufacturing (CoSEM CDT), showcased their innovative composites research through an impressive display of posters and presentations. 

Delegates were treated to a rapid-fire journey through the cutting-edge of composites research, with 25 presentations on topics spanning all three themes of the institute. Slides can be found on the Symposium webpage; recordings will be added to the BCI YouTube Channel.  

Posters from the day were collated into an electronic Poster Booklet.

Attendee stood next to their poster board

Congratulations to all the winners of the poster competition:

  • Delegate vote: Charles de Kergariou. (Runners up: Stefania Akromah and Tom Brereton) 
  • Student vote: Stefania Akromah. (Runners up: Charlie Brewster and Charles De Kergariou) 

 

Documenting the morning’s events was local artist, Helen Frost. Her Graphic visualisation of the Symposium gives a flavour of what it was like to be there on the day.  

An artist drawing illustrations across a large canvas

Following the Symposium, students attended an industry-led discussion panel, comprising experts from Airbus UpNext, GKN Aerospace, Leonardo Helicopters, Sigmatex UK and Vertical Aerospace. Student Nuhaadh Mahid remarked that this “provided the rare opportunity to clarify industry-related questions about their current projects and reasoning behind various design choices.” 

 

To cap off the day staff and students gathered in the Wills Memorial Building for the Symposium dinner to mark the culmination of another year of hard work.

BCI Co-Director, Prof. Ole Thomsen, said: “The display of high-quality research of our BCI doctoral students was truly impressive. This was duly noted and recognised by the external attendees including project partners. It was indeed a good day for BCI!” 

Attendee stood next to their poster board

Two attendees looking at poster board

The Composites Perspectives Series

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Last year the Bristol Composites Institute launched “Composites Perspectives”, a series of talks each focusing on different topics and including two composite-expert speakers. Since June 2022, the BCI has hosted three Composite Perspectives events, with the next one arranged for 11 July 2023 (details on how to register will be released soon).

The first Composites Perspectives event took place on 14 June 2022 and saw Professor Richard Oldfield (Chief Executive, UK National Composites Centre and Honorary Industrial Professor, University of Bristol) and Professor Pascal Hubert (Werner Graupe Chair on Sustainable Composites Manufacturing and Director at the Research Center for High Performance Polymer and Composite Systems, McGill University, Canada) discuss “Composites Role in Delivering Net Zero” and “Solutions for Zero Waste Composite Prepreg Processing”, respectively.

These talks became part of a wider ‘Sustainable Composites’ programme, and in September 2022 guest speaker Dr. Tia Benson-Tolle (Director, Advanced Materials and Sustainability, Boeing Commercial Aircraft) covered the importance of “Circularity and Recycling” within sustainable composites, and Professor Ian Hamerton (NCC Professor of Polymers and Sustainable Composites, University of Bristol) discussed the “High Performance Discontinuous Fibre technology (HiPerDiF)”.

The most recent event, which took place on 14 March 2023,  focused on Transformation in Engineering, with talks from Professor Mike Hinton, Consultant in Research and Technology Partnerships, High Value Manufacturing Catapult (“Engineering Transformation”) and Professor Ole Thomsen, Co-Director of Bristol Composites Institute and NCC Chair in Composites Design and Manufacture (“Towards virtual validation of composites structures – rethinking the testing pyramid approach”).

You can read about the previous events here and recordings of each session are available to view on the BCI Youtube Channel.

We look forward to inviting you to our future Composites Perspectives events.

BCI / NCC Joint Annual Conference, 10 November 2022

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Last November, the Bristol Composites Institute and National Composites Centre presented the 2022 BCI NCC Joint Annual Conference, which addressed some of the key engineering challenges of our time, particularly focusing on how composites will ensure a net zero future for the UK.

The conference showcased the cross-TRL work we conduct together and how we can work in partnership with industry to advance and optimise their technology developments and fast-track innovation.

The morning session included updates from the NCC and BCI on their work in Sustainability, Hydrogen and Digital and the afternoon session focused on transitional research and how the gap between the technology readiness levels can be bridged. There was also a keynote presentation from Kate Barnard (WhatBox – Consultants facilitating mutually beneficial partnerships (whatboxltd.com)) which was followed by a panel session chaired by Michele Barbour and featured Matt Scott, Valeska Ting, Evangelos Zympeloudis, Kate Robson-Brown and Musty Rampuri and sparked plenty of thoughtful discussions between guests and speakers.

The conference, which was held at the NCC in Emersons Green, Bristol, welcomed over 60 people in-person, and had an additional 40 online attendees. Details of the 2023 joint conference will be released later in the year.

Guests listening to a presentation at the conference Guests listening to a presentation at the conference

Why you should consider the EngD route for your doctorate study…

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The Industrial Doctorate Centre in Composites Manufacture (IDC) is pleased to announce that we are seeking high calibre candidates to take up one of five fully funded EngD studentships based at the National Composites Centre (NCC) – the UK’s leading mid-TRL innovation facility in composite materials.

To apply complete and submit this online form and send your CV and transcript of results to Helen.Howard@bristol.ac.uk

Why an EngD?

Patrick Sullivan, an EngD student currently based at the NCC, says

“ The ethos of an EngD is to work in industry as if you are a full time employee, fully embedded in your organisation’s system’s and structures, but to work towards your long term research and academic goal as your thesis approaches. The industry focus is beneficial for steering your research in a meaningful way, allowing greater impact and dissemination of your work. 

The appeal of an EngD is that you stay in the academic loop where innovation rules with the freedom to pursue research topics and work with world leading academics. But you are also driven by the focus of your industrial sponsor and their need to see the impact of the research on live projects. ”

As a successful applicant, you will be based at the National Composites Centre (NCC) and will work on novel, yet industrially focused, cutting-edge research, whilst following a taught programme at University of Bristol. The projects will cover a wide range of NCC’s strategic areas with a focus on using digital manufacturing with composite materials to solve urgent issues towards sustainability.

Financially it makes sense too.

Successful applicants will receive an enhanced tax-free stipend of £23,730 a year, a fee waiver and a generous allowance to support training.

 

Why the EngD works for industry.

The NCC has supported the Industrial Doctorate Centre (IDC) in Composites Manufacture for many years. Matt Scott, Chief Engineer for Capability at NCC, says

“ We find that our deep partnership with the IDC allows us to solve two pressing needs. Firstly, it gives us a mechanism to set motivated and tenacious minds on solving some of the research challenges that a commercial context by itself may not easily allow for. Secondly, it allows us to train the leaders of tomorrow towards an exciting and fulfilling career in the composites sector and beyond. ”

The topics you could be working on.

We are seeking highly motivated and committed individuals with an eye on the future, who are interested in conducting stimulating and essential industrial research and have a passion for finding sustainable solutions in areas such as:

  • Low-carbon concrete.
  • Through-Life Damage and Environmental Assessment.
  • Recycled Fibre/Matrix Interfacial Properties
  • Composite Shielding against Directed Energy Weapons
  • High-Rate Automated Deposition of CFRP for rapid production of aircraft wings.
  • Advanced Tooling for Aerospace Composites
  • Large Scale Rapid Infusion of wings.
  • In-Process Material Inspection and Verification of Aerospace Parts.
  • Digital Passport for Re-Using Aerospace Manufacturing Waste.

For more information about the topics you could be exploring visit our website here.

Professor Janice Barton, Director of the IDC, says;

“ If you are interested in studying for a doctorate at University of Bristol, being involved in the activities of Bristol Composites Institute and have a passion to explore sustainable composites solutions to address NetZero challenges then please consider applying to be part of our inclusive and dynamic programme in Composites Engineering. ”

What you need to bring.

Applicants must hold/achieve a minimum of a 2:1 MEng or merit at Masters level or equivalent in engineering, physics or chemistry. Applicants without a master’s qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of readiness to pursue a research degree and performance at interview.

Due to visa restrictions these posts are available to Home/EU (UK settled status) with permanent UK residency.

To apply complete this online form and send your CV and transcript of results to Helen.Howard@bristol.ac.uk

If you have any further questions about our programme, or if you would like to have an informal chat with Professor Barton or a current EngD student, please do get in touch by e-mail.

Helen Howard, IDC Manager Helen.Howard@bristol.ac.uk

Promoting Sustainability by Solving Wind Turbine Design Challenges

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Photo of Terence Macquart Photo of Alberto PirreraPhoto of Paul Weaver

 

 

 

by Terence Macquart (terence.macquart@bristol.ac.uk), Alberto Pirrera, and Paul Weaver 

Wind energy is recognised as one of the greenest sources of energy, meaning that energy produced from wind turbines is generally less harmful to the environment than other energy sources, especially coal and gas. In other words, substituting fossil-based fuel with wind power is a great leap toward a more sustainable future. Although wind energy today only contributes a small fraction to the total energy consumed worldwide, considerable societal efforts are being made to build more turbines and wind farms to increase our wind energy capacity and hence produce cleaner energy. This is obvious in the UK, where the government aims to reach 50 MW of installed capacity by the end of 2030, quintupling its current wind energy capacity, a formidable aspiration. 

Modern wind turbine technology has rapidly evolved over the past decades to meet the rising demand for wind power. This can be seen by the gigantic size of modern turbines, dwarfing even the largest aircraft ever created. Such large and complex systems come with engineering and sustainability challenges of their own. The wind blade research hub (WBRH) is a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC) that aims to address some of these challenges, as illustrated by the breadth of our work in the Figure below. Read more about each challenge addressed by researchers at the WBRH in the following paragraph. 

Figure 1 : Overview of the wind blade research hub activities at the University of Bristol (REF: Mackie (2020) Establishing the optimal conditions for rotating arm erosion testing, materials characterisation and computational modelling of wind turbine blade rain erosion)

 

Infographic of wind turbine resaearch

Improving wind turbine performance with holistic design tools: 

Photo of Samuel Scott
by Samuel Scott; Terence Macquart terence.macquart@bristol.ac.uk

Although the design of wind turbines appears to be mature because we are repeatedly exposed to the familiar 3-bladed upwind turbine design, we know that their performance and sustainability could be further improved. However, wind turbines are also complex systems, and it is, therefore, very difficult, even sometimes impossible, to fully understand the impact that a change in design can have on the overall turbine performance. To overcome this challenge, our group has developed a sophisticated set of analysis and design tools which can navigate the complex design space of wind turbines and helps us better understand the design trade-offs we can make to improve them, leading to non-conventional designs as shown in the figure below. Reducing weight, also called light weighting, is a prime example of how such tools can help the wind industry; that is, by achieving a better understanding of aerodynamic and inertial loads on blades we can design lighter and more efficient blades, resulting in less raw materials being needed and more energy generated over the turbine lifespan. If you are interested in reading more on this topic, see the work of Dr. Samuel Scott (https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/312520978/Thesis_SamScott_Final.pdf). 

Figure 2: Non-conventional design planform of a 15MW wind turbine blade, outperforming conventional designs. AC: Aerodynamic Centre, FA: Flexural Axis

Graphic of a graph   

Wind Turbine End-of-Life:

Photo of Ian Hamerton
by Ian Hamerton & Terence Macquart

Large wind turbine blades require very strong material such as carbon fibre reinforced polymers which cannot currently be recycled effectively at large scales. As a result, at their end-of-life blades often go to landfills or are incinerated. In such cases, the costly carbon fibres making up the blade are lost, and new virgin material must be made. However, manufacturing virgin carbon fibres requires manufacturing process that are energy demanding and emit a lot of greenhouse gases. By contrast, materials that can be recycled, such as the steel making up the wind turbine tower, typically requires less energy to be made re-usable and emit less greenhouse gases (e.g. recycling steel reduces greenhouse gases emission by about 70-80%). The WBRH has two strands of research aiming to reduce the carbon footprint of wind turbines. The first one aims to rethink the design of modern turbines, using comprehensive design tools and life cycle analysis methods, to create new designs that can be made of more sustainable material. The second research strand investigates scalable ways in which we can recycle carbon fibres into new structural components, hence diminishing the overall environmental impact of wind turbine blades (Ian, Hyperdif, Lineat). 

Leading Edge Erosion: 

Photo Imad Ouachan Photo of Robbie Heering

by Imad Ouachan and Robbie Heering

 Leading edge erosion has   developed into a significant issue for the wind industry. Raindrops, hailstones, and other particles impacting the leading edges of the blades cause material to be removed. This leaves a roughened blade surface, which degrades the aerodynamic performance of the blade, and hence its power production. The problem appears to be accelerated offshore due to high blade tip speeds and harsher operation environments. Viscoelastic Leading Edge Protection (LEP) systems are applied to the leading edge of blade to mitigate the onset of erosion. However, there is currently no LEP that lasts the lifetime of the turbine and regular repair is required. It is estimated that the issue costs £1.3m per turbine over its lifetime [X]. To support the development of improved LEP systems, the WBRH has worked with industrial LEP companies to investigate two key areas: (i) an understanding of the viscoelasticity of LEP systems and (ii) mechanisms to test and predict LEP performance. On the former, the WBRH has developed bespoke techniques to understand the drivers of LEP erosion performance by expanding knowledge in strain and frequency dependent behaviour and measurement techniques, including dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, acoustic measurement, and nano indentation. On the latter, a prediction model to relate an LEP’s test performance to its in-situ performance has been developed. This included an exploration of current erosion testing mechanisms to enhance their ability to realistically evaluate performance and the first characterisation of a wind turbine’s erosion environment. Together these two pieces of research have developed significant understanding of the drivers of erosion and important material properties, providing the wind industry with tools to further develop LEP systems and combat the important challenge of leading edge erosion. 

Modular blades: 

Photo of Alex Moss
by Alex Moss

The overall aim of this work is to enable faster,  cheaper, and easier production of wind turbine blades, which will help to reduce global dependence on fossil fuels. This is achieved through additive manufacturing, which will be used to build the internal structure of the blade. Acting as the composite layup surface, this would replace the costly and energy intensive steel-backed composite moulds currently used. Introducing automation into production process could lead to the creation of an assembly line, helping to make the 3 blades per day required to hit 2030 wind energy targets. To design these novel blade structures, topology optimisation is used to find the lightest possible configuration, reducing material use and energy. The wider industry is beginning to use recyclable materials to cut down on landfill waste at the end of life. The printed material takes this one step further, using recycled chopped carbon and glass fibre inside a recyclable resin. The printed material also replaces the balsa wood cores, into which the resin leaks during infusion which is wasted material and makes the balsa unrecyclable.  

Advanced numerical models:

Photo of Sander Van den Broek
by Sander Van den Broek

As blades increase in length, they become increasingly difficult to structurally model. Traditional approaches using shell elements cannot accurately model the torsional stiffness as failure modes that become more important at larger length scales. At the same time, solid elements found in commercial finite element software are limited to lower-order descriptions of displacement fields. Convergence using lower order solid elements would require an excessive number of elements, becoming computationally prohibitive. Ongoing work at the WBRH is to develop higher-order structural modelling techniques that can simulate the nonlinear stresses and evaluate the stability of large wind turbine blades. 

Composites for Hydrogen Storage for Green Aviation

Posted on by jo.rich

by Valeska Ting v.ting@bristol.ac.uk; James Griffith james.griffith@bristol.ac.uk; Charlie Brewster c.d.brewster@bristol.ac.uk; Lui Terry lt7006@bristol.ac.uk  

 

Of all of the modes of transportation that we need to decarbonize, air travel is perhaps the most challenging. In contrast to road or marine transport, which can realistically be delivered with battery or hybrid technologies, the sheer weight of even the best available batteries makes long-haul air travel (such as is needed to maintain our current levels of international mobility) prohibitive. Hydrogen is an extremely light, yet supremely energy-dense energy vector. It contains three times more energy per kilogram than jet fuel, which is why hydrogen is traditionally used as rocket fuel.   

Companies like Airbus are currently developing commercial zero-emission aircraft powered by hydrogen. A key challenge for the use of hydrogen is that it is a gas at room temperature, requiring use of very low temperatures and specialist infrastructure to allow its storage in a more convenient liquid form. To deliver this disruptive technology Airbus are undertaking a radical redesign of their future fleet to enable the use of liquid hydrogen fuel tanks[5].

A jet flying in the sky

In its liquid form, hydrogen needs to be stored at –253oC. At these temperatures, traditional polymer matrices are susceptible to microcracking due to the build-up of thermally induced residual stresses. Research at the Bristol Composites Institute at the University of Bristol is looking at how we can develop new materials to produce tough, microcrack resistant matrices for lightweight composite liquid hydrogen storage tanks. 

We are also looking at the use of smart composites involving nanoporous materials – materials that behave like molecular sponges to spontaneously adsorb and store hydrogen at high densities– for onboard hydrogen storage for future aircraft designs. Hydrogen adheres to the surface of these materials; more surface area equals more hydrogen. One gram of our materials has more surface area than 5 tennis courts, with microscopic pores less than 1 billionth of a meter in diameter. These properties allow us to store hydrogen at densities hundreds of times greater than bulk hydrogen under the same conditions. Whilst simultaneously improving the conditions currently needed for onboard hydrogen storage. Our research looks to improve this by tailoring the composition of these materials to store even greater quantities of hydrogen beyond the densities dictated by surface area.  

With hydrogen quickly becoming recognised around the world as the aviation fuel of the future, France and Germany are investing billions in ambitious plans for hydrogen-powered passenger aircraft. To keep pace with the development of new aircraft by industry, there is a parallel need for rapid investment into refuelling infrastructure at international airports to allow storage and delivery of the liquid hydrogen fuel. Urgent investment to also upgrade the hydrogen supply chain is imperative. The UK Government’s announcement of new investment in wind turbines and offshore renewables will certainly boost the UK’s ability to generate sustainable hydrogen fuel and presents additional opportunities for new industries and markets.  

It seems industry is finally ready to take the leap away from its reliance on fossil fuel to more sustainable technologies. Decisive action and public investment into upgrading our hydrogen infrastructure will allow us to realise the many benefits of this and will make sure the UK remains competitive in this low-carbon future.

 

 

Images and permissions available from: 
https://www.airbus.com/search.image.html?q=&lang=en&newsroom=true#searchresult-image-all-22  

References:  

[1] Hydrogen-powered aviation – A fact-based study of hydrogen technology, economics, and climate impact by 2050 https://www.fch.europa.eu/sites/default/files/FCH%20Docs/20200507_Hydrogen%20Powered%20Aviation%20report_FINAL%
20web%20%28ID%208706035%29.pdf
[2] Liquid Hydrogen–the Fuel of Choice for Space Exploration https://www.nasa.gov/content/liquid-hydrogen-the-fuel-of-choice-for-space-exploration 
[3] Airbus looks to the future with hydrogen planes
 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54242176 
[4] Liquid Hydrogen Delivery
 https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/liquid-hydrogen-delivery 
[5] Airbus reveals new zero-emission concept aircraft https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/press-releases/en/2020/09/airbus-reveals-new-zeroemission-concept-aircraft.html 
[6] Bristol Composites Institute
 http://www.bristol.ac.uk/composites/ 
[7] Nanocage aims to trap and release hydrogen on demand https://www.theengineer.co.uk/nanocage-hydrogen-gas/ 
[8] Engineering porous materials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNqLeO61huM 
[9] France bets on green plane in package to ‘save’ aerospace sector https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-france-aerospace/france-bets-on-green-plane-in-package-to-save-aerospace-sector-idUKKBN23G0TB 
[10] Germany plans to promote ‘green’ hydrogen with €7 billion https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/germany-plans-to-promote-green-hydrogen-with-e7-billion/ 
[11] EU Hydrogen Roadmap https://www.fch.europa.eu/sites/default/files/Hydrogen%20Roadmap%20Europe_Report.pdf 
[12] Boris Johnson: Wind farms could power every home by 2030 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54421489