Research Area | Composite Lightweight Engineering

EUReCOMP aims to provide sustainable methods for the recycling and reuse of composite materials derived from components used in various sectors, such as the aerospace and wind energy industries. The key approaches to achieving this in line with a sustainable circular economy are: i) the repair, reuse and redesign of components from end-of-life mass-produced products, and ii) the recycling and recovery of the materials used in these components. This reduces the volume of waste and enables the transformation of these materials into high value-added products.

Funding: EU Horizon Europe
Project duration: 04/2022 – 03/2026

EuReCOMP project page

As part of the planned research project, a novel, multi-layered sandwich structure comprising thermoplastic honeycomb cores is to be developed. The design and optimisation of these novel cell wall structures will be carried out using simulation. With the aid of various methods for reducing density, the sandwich-like cell walls are also to be implemented in manufacturing, systematically investigated with regard to material and process parameters, and compared with existing honeycomb structure solutions. Furthermore, by using recycled thermoplastic materials in combination with the newly developed multi-layer honeycomb structure made from a single material, it would be possible to manufacture significantly more sustainable and more rigid sandwich structures cost-effectively and on a large industrial scale.

Funding: ZIM
Project duration: 05/2023 – 11/2025

ExSaZell project page

The Printcap project is dedicated to the development of efficient, lightweight and durable energy storage solutions for carbon-free mobility systems. The solutions to be researched, which are based on a combination of supercapacitors (supercaps, SC) and composite materials, have the potential to lead to breakthrough innovations in the field of electromobility. The synergy between supercapacitors and composite materials aims to drastically reduce the weight and space requirements of energy storage systems. The development work is being carried out in collaboration with Thales R&T, Nawa Technologies (both in France) and TU Dresden.

Funding: SAB/EU (M-Era.net)
Project duration: 06/2022 – 05/2025

PRINTCAP project page

To digitally represent the development process of lightweight structures made from composite materials, the project combines self-learning methods with a virtual twin approach. To this end, new software-based solutions are being developed that are suitable for the entire design process, including recycling. Formalising the digital development process lays the foundation for plugin-driven development, which, by integrating existing partial solutions, significantly simplifies and improves the development process, leading to more efficient and, at the same time, more sustainable engineering solutions.

Funding: HTWK PhD scholarship
Project duration: 06/2021 – 05/2025

MeHodE project page

As part of the Aviation Research and Technology (LuFo VI) project ‘Development and testing of ultra-light composite structures with integrated electrical storage functionality’ (Elvis), HTWK is collaborating with TU Dresden and Fraunhofer IWS Dresden to develop so-called structural batteries. These are multifunctional materials that both possess high load-bearing capacity and function as batteries. Structural batteries could, in the long term, help electric flight achieve a breakthrough. The aim of Elvis is to develop, design and test flexible energy storage tapes and to process them further into a new generation of lightweight structures.

Funding: BMWK
Project duration: 05/2022 – 04/2025

ElVis project page

The iClimaBuilt project, funded under Horizon 2020, is dedicated to the development of smart lightweight building materials for the construction sector and technologies for integrating energy storage and energy recovery systems into building envelopes. Twenty-seven partners from 14 different European countries are conducting research into so-called Zero Emission Buildings (ZEBs) as part of iClimaBuilt. In collaboration with the Sustainable Construction Research Group at the Institute of Concrete Structures at HTWK, carbon concrete construction methods are being made more sustainable.

Funding: EU Horizon 2020
Project duration: 03/2021 – 02/2025

iClimaBuilt
project pagehttps://iclimabuilt.eu

For fibre-reinforced composites used in safety-critical structural components, such as in the automotive industry or in aerospace, so-called safety verifications must be carried out. Impact and crash loads often result in the most critical load cases, meaning that material-specific calculation methods and simulation techniques are required. Describing multiple, sequentially occurring crash and impact events presents a particular challenge, which is being investigated experimentally and numerically in the Enamipro project.

Funding: SAB
Project duration: 04/2021 – 03/2022

EnamiPro project page