Professor Janice Barton for Match ID – Newsletter feature

The prestigious DIC software platform, Match ID, have published a feature in their latest newsletter on the work that Professor Janice Barton leading supported by Dr Tobias Laux, Dr Riccardo Cappello and Dr Geir Olafsson. It is entitled ‘Application in the picture: Multiaxial testing and imaging of wind turbine blade spar cap to web T-joint.

View the full article and newsletter here.

Congratulations to Janice and her brilliant RC3 team.

Upcoming CerTest Workshop & Panel Session at ICCM 23

The much anticipated Composites Regulations Workshop and Panel Session led by the CerTest team will be taking place on Tuesday 1st of August at ICCM in Belfast.

The 23rd International Conference on Composites Materials will house this special workshop on ‘Modernising Route to Compliance with Composite Regulations: A Journey towards Virtual Testing and Digital Twinning’. There has been a collaborative effort from the Bristol Composites Institute, the National Composites Centre and the University of Bath to put together a workshop that follows on from previous ICCM sessions that addresses ‘industrial needs’

For the full list of speakers and presentations, please see a downloadable copy below.

Poster by Emily Leung at CompTest 2023

University of Bristol PhD student, Emily Leung, presented a poster and it was part of her Phd work that focused on using mirror assisted imaging techniques to detect and characterize the interface fracture through the face sheets of sandwich structures.

Emily reported that Comptest 2023 was an amazing conference, and it was great to disseminate her work to the attendees and make new connections. Senior Research Associate, Tobias Laux, was also in attendance and confirmed the amazing networking opportunity that the CompTest conference offerred.

Professor Janice Barton delivers keynote at CompTest 2023

11th International Conference on Composite Testing and Model Identification (May 31 – June 2)

CerTest took on CompTest this month with Professor Janice Dulieu Barton’s delivering a Keynote Presentation on Full Field Data Fusion (FFDF) to characterise subsurface defects in composite structures.

Her presentation was one of the highlights of the conference and was very well attended. To view her fantastic presentation, please click here.

CerTest at JEC 2023

JEC World is the global trade show for composite materials and their applications. Held in Paris, JEC World is the industry’s leading event, hosting all the major players in a spirit of innovation, business, and networking.

Principal Investigator, Professor Ole Thomsen, attended along with Professor Janice Barton to learn about new developments taking place in the composite world. With hundreds of product launches, startup cnferences, live demonstrations and networking opportunities, JEC World offers an amazing opportunity for the CerTest team to learn more about new and exciting developments that could impact or influence our research, both current and future, of the certification process and the reshaping of the testing pyramid.

Success for CerTest PhD students

There has been lots going on for two of our CerTest PhD students at the University of Bath. They have each had notable successes this year with their research outputs.

Jiraphant Srisuriyachot’s published paper “Carbon fibre lattice strain mapping via microfocus synchrotron X-ray diffraction of a reinforced composite” has been selected for Diamond Light Source Science Highlights 2022 as well as their 2022/2023 annual review which has not been released yet.

In March this year, Thomas Maierhofer won the 2nd Prize in the SAMPE UK & Ireland Student Seminar Competition 2023 in Belfast. He delivered a brilliant seminar titled: A route to Certification of Bonded Termoset Composite Structures via Resistance Welding.  As a result, Thomas has been invited to represent the UK & Ireland at the 38th SAMPE Europe Student Seminar in Madrid in October this year and will also join and be part of the SAMPE YES committee for one year.

Congratulations to Jay and Thomas!

#CerTest

New testing procedures at Southampton

two researchers smiling in front of test rig

CerTest Research Associate’s, Tobi Laux and Riccardo Cappello, have recently been visiting the University of Southampton from the University of Bristol. They are currently working on the development of a novel sub-component testing procedure that provides insights that cannot be obtained through traditional coupon or full-scale testing.

To achieve this, we are combining full-field imaging techniques such as Digital Image Correlation and Thermoelastic Stress Analysis to capture detailed information about the behaviour of materials under complex loading conditions.

The activity is conducted on a bespoke multiaxial test rig housed in the Large Structures Testing Laboratory (LSTL) at the University of Southampton, which requires the team to travel there regularly.

Seminar by Dr Jevan Furmanski from UoDayton, USA

Dr Jevan Furmanski

University of Dayton

Abstract: Recent advances in additive manufacturing with continuously-reinforced composites (AM-CC) has enabled the use of this process to realize mass-efficient, topology-optimized (TO), bioinspired structures.  The consideration of the use of AM-CC-TO primary structure has raised critical questions about this material’s performance and limits of manufacturability, both linked to defects at multiple length scales. This talk will briefly cover challenges related to AM-CC-TO structure, including defect structures, topological junctions, and reconsideration of structural allowables for attritable (limited-lifetime) aircraft.

10:00 to 11:00 20th February 2023 University of Bristol, Queens Building, Faculty Board Room

We would like to thank Jevan once more for the seminar which was well received by all those who attended, both virtually and by more than 40 people online.

Seminar by visiting academic, Professor Dan Zenkert

Dan Zenkert presenting to the CerTest team at the University of Bristol

We recently welcomed Professor Dan Zenkert to the University of Bristol where he delivered a fantastic seminar on Multifunctional Carbon Fibre Composites to the CerTest team and to the wider Bristol Composites Institute as well as partners from the National Composites Centre.

Dan Zenkert is, since, 2001 a professor in Lightweight Structures at the department of Engineering Mechanics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Dan’s early research work was mainly focused on sandwich structures and sandwich core materials. He has also worked with cost optimisation methods for composite structures and recyclable composite materials. His current research interest is the area of so called structural batteries aiming at developing structurally load carrying materials that simultaneously store electrical energy like a battery. This research is now extended to include more functionalities to carbon fibre composites, such as sensing, morphing and energy harvesting, all properties intrinsically built into the load carrying material itself.

The presentation, on the 3rd Feb 2023, gave a brief introduction to so called structural batteries which in short are carbon fibre composite laminates that store electrical energy just like a lithium-ion battery. But more functions can be integrated using the coupling between mechanics and electrochemistry:, strain sensing, shape-morphing and energy harvesting – all built in to the material itself.