Research

Combined numerical and experimental approach for the development, testing and analysis of thick adhesive joints in large wind turbine blades. Funding: FWO & SNSF

Climate change is in the centre of the social and political debate nowadays, in particular with respect to the reduction of CO2 emissions. In that context, wind energy is an important source of renewable energy with a substantial increase in the coming years, also in Belgium and Switzerland. The performance of wind turbine blades is essential to provide the needed power output and guarantee a stable and long-term reliability of the wind turbines. Since wind turbine blades are held together by adhesive joints, these form a crucial load carrying part in the blade assembly. In contrast to adhesive joints in aerospace composites, adhesive joints in wind turbine blades are very thick (5-20 mm), because they have to compensate for the large tolerances between the two halves of the blades that are bonded together. Further, they have to be ductile and resist to multi-axial fatigue loading for a design life of 20 years. This project proposes a new combined numerical and experimental approach for the materials development, testing and analysis of thick adhesive joints for large scale civil engineering structures, with the case study of wind turbine blades.

Consortium: UGent-MMS: W. Van Paepeghem, VUB-MeMC: D. Van Hemelrijck, EPFL-LPAC: V. Michaux & T. Vassilopoulos

PhD students: MeMC: J. Karami & A. Shivaie Kojouri; MMS: EPFL:Fan Jialiang

Reliability of fibre-reinforced composites materials design and variability (RELFICOM). Funding: VLAIO & SIM

RELFICOM looks at different materials-related aspects controlling reliability of fibre-reinforced composites. The topics of investigation include (but are not limited to): improving reliability through materials design, understanding the role of the material variability including defects and improving 3D printing to yield more reliable part quality. This will lead to reductions in safety factors, and hence lighter and safer composite structures. Other research partners are Ghent University and KU Leuven. Flemish industry is represented by various industrial partners (REIN4CED, TWE, Toyota Motor Europe, Optimum CPV and Siemens Industry Software).

MeMC research group and the UGent-PBM group, focus on aspects of improved recyclability of composites by using/developing fibre-reinforced filaments in 3D printing based on recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET).

Consortium: KU Leuven (MTM), VUB-MeMC: L. Pyl & D. Van Hemelrijck, UGent-PBM: S. van Vlierberghen en industriële partners (REIN4CED, TWE, Toyota Motor Europe, Optimum CPV and Siemens Industry Software)

PhD students MeMC: A. Katalagarianakis, E. Polyzos

Active control of concrete curing by acoustic emission (ACCCAE). Funding: FWO

Acoustic monitoring has recently significantly contributed to the understanding of processes in fresh cementitious media. The ambition of this project is, for the first time, to use the real time acoustic emission (AE) behavior to control the curing of the material - aiming at better mechanical properties - and at the same time use the recorded data to make projections towards the final quality of the hardened medium. Processes like hydration and shrinkage cracking, which are crucial for mechanical properties gain, also produce high amounts of detectable AE during the fresh state. Therefore, acoustic techniques - due to their non-invasive and sensitive nature - in combination with optical techniques for displacement measurements form an excellent platform to study the material, but most importantly to steer the curing during the very delicate phase of hydration taking advantage of the real time information. This obtains even higher importance when considering modern admixtures like super absorbent polymers and the effort to control their behavior, an aspect that is also treated herein in order to improve the material performance. Optimizing the mechanical properties of a given mix ensures long standing materials, contributing to sustainability of the built environment which is the driving force behind the research

Consortium: MeMC-VUB (coordinator): D. G. Aggelis, UGENT: G. De Schutter

PhD students: MeMC: TBA