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H2020Doctoral network2016–2020

ICONIC · Improving the crashworthiness of composite transportation structures

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2016-10-01 → 2020-09-30
EU contribution
€3,813,566
Participants
14
Scheme
MSCA-ITN-ETN

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Improving the crashworthiness of composite transportation structures

The European aerospace, automotive, and rail industries are committed to improving their energy efficiency to meet targets set within the EU’s climate, energy and transport policies. This has motivated the increased utilisation of lightweight composite materials in transportation structures in lieu of heavier metallics. In doing so, these industries are mandated to attain or exceed the same level of crash performance achieved with metals but at significantly lower weight. This is a challenging goal and the central aim of ICONIC was to develop a critical mass of research and engineering leaders with a world-leading capability in the design of lightweight aeronautical, automotive and rail transportation composite structures with superior crashworthiness. These challenges were addressed by bringing together 15 early stage researchers (ESRs), recruited from an international talent pool, in an innovative, integrated, multiscale and multidisciplinary research and skills development programme that went beyond the state of the art. The ICONIC research programme, adopted a multiscale approach, ranging from material development and characterisation at the nano- and microscales; high fidelity numerical modelling of composite damage at the micro and mesoscales; through to the structural design and optimisation of representative structures (macrosale) with superior energy-absorption and crashworthiness. The influence of processing parameters on structural performance, ageing, sustainability and life-cycle costs were also addressed within this network. ICONIC has advanced our understanding of the energy absorbing mechanisms of non-metallic fibre reinforced polymer composites and has provided a number of novel technologies which exploit such mechanisms to deliver maximum crashworthiness. These include (i) the development of new composite materials with high energy absorbing capacity, (ii) new computational tools for the virtual crash testing of structures made from these candidate materials, (iii) improved physical testing methods for the accurate characterisation of these materials to generate basic data required for the computation modelling, and (iv) new design concepts for energy absorbing transportation structures.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The European aerospace, automotive, and rail industries are committed to improving their energy efficiency to meet targets set within the EU’s climate, energy and transport policies. This is motivating the increased use of lightweight composite materials in lieu of heavier metallics. To implement this transition, these industries must reach, at least, the same level of crash performance achieved with metals, but at significantly lower weight and without increasing cost. This is viewed by industry as an exceptionally challenging goal and will require highly trained engineers, versed in the myriad aspects of designing cost-effective, crashworthy composites structures, and capable of harnessing the latest research developments in the fast-changing world of composites. The ICONIC ETN aims to cultivate such a new generation of young engineers; comfortable and fluent in the integration and exploitation of knowledge from fields as diverse as materials science, chemistry, computational methods, solid and damage mechanics, textile technology, structural design and optimisation. These researchers will acquire the skills to enable the sustainable and economically-viable design of a new generation of highly efficient, lightweight transportation composite structures that will provide the maximum protection to occupants through superior crashworthiness. 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) will be recruited to take up posts, across the UK, Ireland, Greece, Germany, Italy and Sweden, in an innovative, multidisciplinary and intersectoral structured research and training programme. ICONIC is supported by a strong consortium from academia, large industrial enterprises and innovative SMEs. A comprehensive training and secondment programme (including joint supervision and industrial mentoring) will equip researchers with additional transferable skills to ensure future employability and career progression.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union