PhD Students

A brief summary of your research (100 words): In this project, we aim to use fibre-hybrid composites to change the current manufacturing-microstructure paradigm to a microstructure-manufacturing paradigm. This change constitutes that the manufacturing of composites will be deliberately controlled to yield the targeted microstructure instead of vice versa. More specifically, this PhD project will develop the manufacture of aligned discontinuous hybrid fibre mats. The objectives are: to fundamentally understand and optimize the alignment process; to establish the effect of commingling of different fractions of two or more discontinuous reinforcement fibres; to adapt the alignment process to yield the desired microstructure; and to understand the capabilities for the use of recycled fibre in hybrid architectures.

As composite are becoming more common in different industries, designers and engineers are facing challenges in making the informed decisions during early development stages since design information is limited during these stages. These challenges are further increased by the lack of sufficient Design for Manufacturing and Assembly principles for composites. Therefore my research is focused on developing a data-driven decision support system for composite manufacturing that aids designers and engineers make informed decisions during early stages. 

My research is focused on improving understanding of frictional behaviour during composites preforming processes, in particular, how friction affects the forming of both biaxial and uni-directional non-crimp fabrics. This understanding of friction is being used to develop a friction-specific model in Abaqus, to predict frictional behaviour. Additionally, the use surface modifiers, such as powders, resins and veils, is being used to influence and control friction within a forming process. This decreases the number and magnitude of defects such as wrinkles within fibrous preforms, therefore decreasing production cycle times and improving the mechanical properties of a finished composite component.

Shimin is involved a project funded by Future Composites Manufacturing Research Hub: Technologies Framework for Automated Dry Fibre Placement (ADFP). His Research is focused on investigating deposition behaviour of dry carbon fibres processed by ADFP and building simulation tools to optimise process parameters and facilitate real-time deposition control.

This DPI funded project focuses on high strain rate responses of polymers. My project can be summarised as:

• Develop and employ a methodology to characterise high strain rate response of engineering polymers and composites
• Assemble continuum constitutive models appropriate for impact loading
• Provide a mechanistic understanding of impact damage, and the modelling of impact behaviour of polymers.
• Enable the design of high-performance polymer systems tailored to impact conditions.

By linking our modelling work with experimental research, developed by our partner team at Oxford University, the aim is to develop a framework for mechanistic understanding and modelling of impact behaviour of polymers which can be developed further in future projects.

The advances in AM have seen design and manufacturing of complex structures which were not possible through conventional methods. One such class is the lattice structures which are seeing increasing use in various industries (automotive, aerospace, medical) due to their superior strength to weight properties. While a lot of research is being done to study the design and mechanical properties of lattice structures, less work is directed towards developing techniques for detecting damage in such structures during service. My research will be aimed at studying the possibility of damage detection and characterization in lattice structures using ultrasonic and vibrational analysis. 

The key challenge of this PHD project is to develop an efficient and effective method of removing the glass fibre and other contaminants. The efficient process for recycling will be developed mainly in collaboration with ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd, UK.  The recovered carbon fibre material will be validated by performing the series of experimental tests, i.e mechanical (single fibre)and surface characterization (SEM). Furthermore, the design of experiment will be carried out to optimize the industrial pyrolysis process to gain higher fibre mechanical properties similar to of virgin materials. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765881. 

My research aims to build an automated process for geometric modelling of braided Representative Unit Cells (RUC). This allows for greater prediction in the properties of the braids and will allow for greater use of braided fabrics within the composite sector. The unit cells are built within TexGen, software developed by the University of Nottingham, allowing for easy integration into the design process. The model will be validated against scan data and mechanical for braided fabrics with the aim of testing novel braided fabrics for demonstrator components with known load cases.  

The research project consists of a study of the reinforcement fibre orientation in composites and how this is affected by manufacturing forming processes. The research challenge is to characterise the architecture of woven and non-crimp fabrics in the post-formed state and to determine the resulting structural properties of the composite. A state-of-the-art scanning and measurement system, the Hexagon Apodius system will be used to capture the fibre orientations, enabling the development of an understanding of the forming processes. In this way, material models can be developed to improve the prediction of wrinkling, the main type of defect suffered by the architectures under study.

Conducting damage identification based on guided wave monitoring; Combining fault tree analysis and physics-informed data to predict the remaining useful life of composite structures.

Design for the strength of 3D printed composites. This study is mainly about designing fibre layouts of 3D printed continuous fibre-reinforced composite components, which is aiming to fully exploit the potential of the fibre skeleton within composites.