No current openings at the moment. For more info contact Prof. Jesper Hattel.
No current openings at the moment. For more info contact Prof. Jesper Hattel.
We constantly seek motivated master students who are interested in carrying out research in our group, and willing to accomplish their M.Sc. thesis with us. Interested students are encouraged to contact Prof. Jesper Hattel by email.
The overall themes are given below and you are welcome to suggest any project within a certain combination of the areas listed in the themes.
Modelling Processes:
- Modelling joining processes, e.g. welding
- Modelling manufacturing of composites
- Modelling casting processes
- Modelling additive manufacturing
- Modelling microstructural evolution in metal casting
Disciplines:
- Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
- Numerical heat transfer
- Computational solid mechanics
- Computational materials science
Materials:
- Metals (Ferrous, Non-ferrous)
- Polymers
- Ceramics
- Composites
- Concrete
Available Master projects
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CFD Modelling of Resin Injection Pultrusion (RIP)
Technical disciplines:
- Manufacturing of composites
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
- Flow in porous media
- Rheological characterization
Fiberline Composites is a world leading pultrusion company with more than 30 years of experience in injection pultrusion. The core business of the company is to manufacture and supply profiles mainly by resin injection pultrusion (RIP) to be used in structural applications, in wind turbines and in window and facade applications.
The practice of RIP has become increasingly utilized over the last decade. The modelling of the flow during the impregnation process provides insight into the process physics, highlight potential problems before production and optimise the impregnation process. Thus, developing a mathematical model for the RIP impregnation process can represent an initial step to understanding the production process in more details.
The aim of this project is to characterize the rheological behaviour of the resin and to develop a CFD model that can utilize the rheological results to simulate the flow propagation of the resin in the porous medium. The rheological characterization will be carried out both at DTU-MEK and Fiberline Composites and the developed CFD model will be used to simulate impregnation of typical composite geometries provided by Fiberline Composites.
Project elements:
- Rheological characterization of resin
- Development of CFD model
- Verification and validation of model to experiments in the lab and a real production line
Supervisors, DTU-MEK:
Prof. Jesper Hattel
Asst. Prof. Jon Spangenberg
Researcher, PhD, Mirmasoud Jabbaribehnam
Phone: 4525 4777
E-mail: mjab@mek.dtu.dk
Contact, Fiberline Composites:
Martin Larsen
M.Sc. Thermal and Process Engineering
Phone: 2527 7660
E-mail: mla@fiberline.com
Resin Flow in Pultrusion: Quantification of the Porous Medium
Technical disciplines:
- Manufacturing of composites
- Flow in porous media
- Permeability characterization
Fiberline Composites is a world leading pultrusion company with more than 30 years of experience in injection pultrusion. The core business of the company is to manufacture and supply profiles mainly by resin injection pultrusion (RIP) to be used in structural applications, in wind turbines and in window and facade applications.
The practice of RIP has become increasingly utilized over the last decade. The modelling of the flow during the impregnation process provides insight into the process physics, highlight potential problems before production and optimise the impregnation process. Thus, developing a mathematical model for the RIP impregnation process can represent an initial step to understanding the production process in more details.
The objective of this project is to quantify the porous medium by measuring the permeability and porosity of common fibre reinforcement configurations (rowings and mats) used by Fiberline Composites, and subsequently develop a fluid flow model which takes this into account. The experimental setup is to be developed at DTU-MEK or Fiberline Composites, relying on real world production geometries and data from standard production equipment at Fiberline Composites.
Project elements:
- Fibre reinforcement characterisation under relevant conditions
- Development of CFD model of resin impregnation into porous media in ANSYS Fluent or similar commercial package.
- Verification and validation of model to experiments in the lab and a real production line
Supervisors, DTU-MEK:
Prof. Jesper Hattel
Asst. Prof. Jon Spangenberg
Researcher, PhD, Mirmasoud Jabbaribehnam
Phone: 4525 4777
E-mail: mjab@mek.dtu.dk
Contact, Fiberline Composites:
Martin Larsen
M.Sc. Thermal and Process Engineering
Phone: 2527 7660
E-mail: mla@fiberline.com
Flow Modelling of Curing Resin in a Porous Medium
Technical disciplines:
- Manufacturing of composites
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
- Computational heat transfer
- Curing kinetics and cure dependent viscosity
Fiberline Composites is a world leading pultrusion company with more than 30 years of experience in injection pultrusion. The core business of the company is to manufacture and supply profiles mainly by resin injection pultrusion (RIP) to be used in structural applications, in wind turbines and in window and facade applications.
In the pultrusion process, after the fibre reinforcement becomes fully impregnated (wetted-out) with the resin, the composite will pass through a heated steel die. The die is heated to a constant temperature, and may have several zones of temperature through-out its length, which will cure the thermosetting resin. This will vary the viscosity of the resin as a function of temperature and degree of cure, and therefore change the flow front propagation.
The goal of this project is to develop a fluid flow model which accounts for curing kinetics of the resin. As a part of the project the resin will be characterized both in DTU-MEK and Fiberline Composites using rheological and kinetic experiments, and the results of these characterizations will be used in a CFD model that will be developed to simulate manufacturing of real composite parts provided by Fiberline Composites.
Project elements:
- Conducting rheological experiments on the resin that accounts for curing
- Developing a CFD model that predicts the resin distribution in a porous medium using ANSYS-Fluent or similar commercial packages
- Verification and validation of model to experiments in the lab and a real production line
Supervisors, DTU-MEK:
Prof. Jesper Hattel
Asst. Prof. Jon Spangenberg
Researcher, PhD, Mirmasoud Jabbaribehnam
Phone: 4525 4777
E-mail: mjab@mek.dtu.dk
Contact, Fiberline Composites:
Martin Larsen
M.Sc. Thermal and Process Engineering
Phone: 2527 7660
E-mail: mla@fiberline.com
Thermomechanical modelling of the resin injection pultrusion (RIP) process
Fiberline Composites A/S is a world leading pultrusion company with more than 30 years of experience in injection pultrusion. The core business of the company is to manufacture and supply profiles to be used in structural applications, in wind turbines and in window and facade applications. Based on extensive R&D and innovation work, Fiberline and the R&D team contributes with new knowledge and knowhow related to material development, production methods and applications.
Pultrusion is a continuous production process as visualised in the figure. From the left, initially, fibre reinforcements are guided into the tool. Then liquid resin impregnates the fibre reinforcements and by added heat the resin is cured. Lastly, the cured profile is pulled forward to a flying saw which cuts the profile into predefined lengths.
Depending on the raw material and process quality the profile is now complete with the strength of a composite material however also including potential defects such as residual stress and deformations, cracks and voids. Here, the challenges lie in the understanding of the final solidification and curing process including evaluation of the end-of-line (mechanical) product properties. Therefore, thermomechanical modelling of the process should be performed. The modelling work contains curing kinetics, thermal modelling during curing of the resin, which in essence is an exothermic process, and the coupling to a mechanical model for prediction of residual stresses and distortions in the final profiles.
The project members will spend time Fiberline’s production facility in Middelfart. This will encompass an introduction day in the beginning of the semester and later a number of days where the student wil work together with Fiberline’s R&D department and technicians.
Project elements:
- Process and material data collection (work conducted at Fiberline). This work will consist of material characterization and pultrusion of a specific profile.
- Perform simple experiments together with Fiberline to get the needed background in the RIP process, and for validation of the developed models.
- Developing both analytical and numerical methods for solving the corresponding governing equations related to curing kinetics and thermomechanical modelling. The numerical calculations will be carried out in ABAQUS.
Supervisors, DTU-MEK:
Prof. Jesper Hattel
Researcher, PhD, Mads Rostgaard Sonne
Phone: 4525 4777
E-mail: jhat@mek.dtu.dk, mrso@mek.dtu.dk
Contact, Fiberline Composites:
Martin Larsen
M.Sc. Thermal and Process Engineering
Phone: 2527 7660
E-mail: mla@fiberline.com