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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMARTFAN (Smart by Design and Intelligent by Architecture for turbine blade fan and structural components systems)

Teaser

Summary

\"SMARTFAN project is targeting to develop smart composite materials through the development of nano-modified Carbon Fibres (CFs) and resins, with the ultimate aim to design intelligent structures. SMARTFAN is addressing the key for the 21st century competitive advantage - the development of products with increasing levels of functionality \"\"Smart Materialsâ€. A smart structural system has the capability to sense its environment and the effects thereof in order to respond to external stimuli via an active control mechanism.
SMARTFAN proposes the development of â€œsmartâ€ material and product architectures, with integrated functionalities, that will interact with their environment and react to stimuli by employing biomimetic, selfsensing, actuating and damage-repairing technologies. Their smartness is based on bio-inspired engineering and the use of:
- low and high grade carbon fibres (CF)
- CF reinforced polymers (CFRPs)
- nano-/micro- composites with special physicochemical properties, in order to develop smart (bulk) materials, applied on intelligent structures
Special functions of the smart materials involve:
- CFs for reinforcement of the structure and creation of conductivity gradients
- Carbon Nano Tubes (CNTs) and Carbon Nano Fibres (CNFs) for sensing, micro-hollow particles for self-healing
- electro-magnetic nanoparticles that enable field detection and shielding
- coloring agents or marking cracks and defects
- intelligent communication through Internet of Things (IoT)\"

Work performed

For the first reporting period, SMARTFAN project focused on the smart materials development ((nano)materials, synthesis processes and functionalizations, matrix modifications and smart sizing procedures). The first prototypes have been fabricated - smart grabbing device and small electrode fabrication for supercapacitors application took place. The first smart materials data sheets base has been created and will be updated during the project (WP2). Moreover, the end-user of SMARTFAN have set the first requirements for their final industrial applications that SMARTFAN processes and products will fit in. In WP3 common technology and design review has been finalized. The design of the demonstrators was completed through finite element and CFD simulations. To further enhance the use of the established pilot line, detailed protocols have been created, including information and steps to be followed during 3D Scanning, 3D model development and 3D printing for different thermoplastic materials. The activities carried out in WP5 cover mainly the development of the full atom models for the polymers, the fillers and the composites being considered for some of the SMARTFAN demonstrators, the determination of interfacial properties using these models and the work related with the development of coarse-grained models. Within WP6 the IoT application is initiated and its development will be raised-up in the following months. Development of bioinspired processor cooling system through 3D printing is ongoing. The first Business Model Canvas has been created for open access to pilot line for 3D printing of continuous CFRP. In WP7 the first risk assessment has been performed and recommendations regarding safety aspects within the consortium are given. The DMP is developed and gives the first indications how the data of SMARTFAN will be processed, based on IP strategy for the results. The identification of products and services has been done in respect with the partners expertise and production method. Dissemination and Communication actions (WP8) have already overcome the Initial Awareness Phase to enter the Targeted Dissemination Phase. The scope is to present SMARTFANâ€™s first result to scientific community, industrial ecosystem and general audience. IP technology insights are on-going to understand whatâ€™s happening outside SMARTFAN about IPR based on a detailed IP survey. The data from IP technology insights are used to elaborate the master plan for industrial exploitation. Key exploitable results are under characterization to understand whatâ€™s happening inside SMARTFAN consortium to verify IPR and exploitation potentialities. The collected info from KERs are used to define a strategy on innovation management and technology transfer.

Final results

The expected potential impact of the project includes:
- Accelerated market uptake of the developed smart materials and the intelligent structures, new market opportunities for European industries in some of the most challenging and demanding fields such as renewable energy systems, aerospace, transport, consumer goods and ICT, with potential to be extended to other technological areas.
- Improvement in existing manufacturing processes through integration of smart materials -Self-sensing and self-healing properties of smart materials will enable the prediction of possible structural defects. In addition, the establishment of extended non-destructive tests, will lead to reliable products and reset any risks from the use of the structures.
- Improvement in technical knowledge on the integrated manufacturing processes for nanomaterials and smart materials in terms of productivity, environmental performance and cost-effectiveness. The introduction of composites is becoming affordable through 2 factors: material cost reduction, and the process design and automation. The development of self-sensing and self-healing properties is definitely one key to access markets like mass production automotive, where in the current state of the art, the use of composite materials is limited by the difficulty to detect damages and to repair them in a large stream market.
- Promoting safe-by-design approaches in collaboration with the EU Nanosafety cluster and contributing towards the framework of EU nano-safety and regulatory strategies. One of the main objectives of SMARTFAN project will be to demonstrate and validate - at pilot scale - the reuse of polymer-made materials into their original monomers. That is in view of formulating the new composite resins, which are dedicated to replacing current non-recyclable thermoset composites. The main goal of this demonstration is to validate the new environmentally friendly recycling process with a significant energy balance in favour of recycled monomers able to reuse post-consumer wastes that are not yet collected nor recycled.
- Improved understanding of materials properties based on theoretical materials models. - The proposed modelling techniques will impact the in depth understanding of the material properties from atomistic to continuum and they will be especially helpful for the export of the technology to other applications.
- Enhancing the knowledge base in the EU not only at the R&D level but also at the manufacturing and production level by creating a highly skilled workforce with improved levels of job satisfaction.
- Contributing to a future circular economy; The environmental impact and the cost benefits will be evaluated at each step of the project in order to result in a new, low-cost and green technology. To develop appropriate answers for recycled materials, it is proposed to build up a full recycling cycle of thermoplastic composites coming from production scraps up to the end-of-life. The recovery of the self-healing TP that will be developed in the project will be assessed, in order to check if this characteristic is maintained during various recycling processes.