Advanced Composites Centre for

Innovation and Science

9th ANNUAL CONFERENCE

13th September 2016

www.bris.ac.uk/composites

Morning Programme• Michael Wisnom: ACCIS Director & Professor of Aerospace Structures

Introduction and update on ACCIS activities • Special Guest Speaker: Prof Ignaas Verpoest, KU Leuven

Recent developments in toughening of composites • Dr Valeska Ting: Reader in Smart Nanomaterials

Nanoporous material composites: designing for functionality • Dr Byung Chul Kim: Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering

New approaches in composites manufacture • Professor Stephen Hallett: Professor in Composite Structures

Understanding and predicting wrinkle defect formation • Dr Wendel Sebastian: Reader in Structural Engineering

Testing of Advanced Composite Bridge Decks • Professor Kevin Potter: Professor of Composites Manufacture

Where next for Design for Manufacturing in Composites • One minute presentations by ACCIS researchers Chaired by Dr Marco Longana

• 12:15—13:30 Lunch and Poster Display

• 13:30 —15:30 NCC Presentations

Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science

• Established in 2007• Brings together composites

research across University • Based in Engineering, linked to

Science and Medicine• Focus for collaboration between

academia and industry• ACCIS Vision:

A world leading centre for composites education and research, combining cutting edge fundamental science with strong industrial links for exploitation and technology transfer

Aerofoil CDT Design, Build, Test

High performance polymer matrices

ACCIS New Academic Staff

Dr. Valeska Ting

Reader in Smart Nanomaterials– Development and testing of functional

nanoporous materials– Alternative energy generation and

storage– Lightweight and smart composites

ACCIS Research Themes

• Multifunctional Composites and Novel Microstructures

• Design, Analysis and Failure

• Intelligent Structures

• Composites Processing and Characterisation

Novel cellulose fibres

Visualisation of foreign object damage

Shape-changing lattice structure

Characterisation of wrinkle defects

Academic Partnerships• HiPerDuCT Programme Grant with

Imperial College on High Performance Ductile Composites Technology– Notch insensitivity demonstrated on

thin-ply hybrids and angle-plies

• CIMComp - EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Composites led by Nottingham with Cranfield & Manchester– Successful completion of DefGen– Strong proposal for £10M Future

Manufacturing Hub, with EPSRC– Consortium extended to include

Imperial and Southampton

High strains in thin-ply carbon laminate

Modelling wrinkle formation

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training• 83 PhD students since 2009• 8th cohort starting on 19th September• Students won best paper awards at AIAA

SDM conference for third year running• Four PhDs received Faculty Commendations• Student-run quarterly industrial lecture series

– Inaugural lecture from Alex Baidak, Hexcel– Offers of further lectures very welcome

6th Annual CDT Conference - Tuesday 11th April 2017

• New look website & introductory videos:– “An introduction to the ACCIS CDT”– “Research diversity in the ACCIS CDT”

• Student prizes sponsored by Dassi and Hexcel• PhD project call for January start

– Proposal deadline: Friday 21st October

EPSRC IDC in Composites Manufacture• Integral activity of the Centre for Innovative

Manufacturing of Composites (CIMComp)• Industry based projects, TRL 3-5• 21 EngD research engineers since 2012/13• Strong link with NCC – courses held here,

number of research engineers based at NCC

• First Conference of the IDC on Tue 18th October 2016, NCC– Please contact Maria Aviles on idc@cimcomp.ac.uk if you are interested in

attending.

Current sponsors include: Aviation Enterprises Ltd., Formax, Hexcel, Jaguar Land Rover, Jo Bird & Co., Mark Wright & Sons, National Composites Centre, National Physics Laboratory, NOV Elmar, Pentaxia and Rolls-Royce.

ACCIS – a year in view

ACCIS PhD Graduates• Bing Zhang - Self-sensing through-

thickness reinforcement• Jie Yuan - Mistuning analysis of aero-engine

bladed discs• Michael Elkington - The future of sheet

prepreg lay-up• Broderick Coburn - Buckling of stiffened

variable stiffness panels• Chenchen Zhu - Manufacturing of cellulose

and chitin fibres• Luca Boldrin - Novel gradient cellular and

nanocomposite structures• Rainer Groh - Straight-fibre and tow-

steered composite beams and plates• Simon White - Post-buckling of variable-

stiffness shell structures• Ettore Lamacchia - Geometrically non-

linear shells for morphing applications•

•

Graduation Day February 2016

(L-R) Bing, Jie, Michael, Broderick, Chenchen, Luca, Rainer, Simon, Ettore

ACCIS PhD Graduates cont.• Ric Sun - Impact modelling of composites• Supratik Mukhopadhyay - Failure of

laminates containing embedded wrinkles• Steven Rae - Novel self-healing systems:

expanding and inhibited healing agents• Rafael Luterbacher Mus - Self-healing

for structural applications• Bassam El Said - Integrated multi-scale

modelling of 3D woven composites• James Trevarthen - Towards CNT

fibre/polymer composites• Francesca Pernice - On delamination

migration in composite laminates• Dennis Crowley - In-process inspection

for advanced composites manufacture• Desislava Bacheva - Novel bio-inspired

materials and structures

Graduation Day, July 2016

(L-R) Ric, Supratik, Steven, Rafael, Bassam, James, Francesca

• Jamie Blanchfield - Fatigue delamination onset and growth

• Eric Eckstein - Behaviour of composite bimorphs at elevated temperatures

National Composites Centre Links• Kevin Potter joint NCC Chair• Increasing number of IDC

research engineers based at NCC provide a strong link

• Mechanism established for pull-through of technology to NCC

• £1.3M committed support by NCC for Future Manufacturing Hub

• EPSRC autoclave and process monitoring equipment operational, available to other universities via CIMComp

• ACCIS – NCC joint conference!

Future Opportunities• Academic and industrial collaborations, secondments• Major new research programmes through Innovate UK,

MoD, EPSRC and Horizon 2020 initiatives• Blue skies PhDs; initial studies - CDT, MEng, MSc projects • EngD projects in IDC in composites manufacture• EPSRC Impact Acceleration Projects• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships• Joint programmes with the National Composites Centre

Hierarchical truss structureNovel braided metal-composite joint