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Description:
Lightweight fibre-reinforced composites are vital in enabling more efficient wind turbines and making cars lighter. Composite structures face large safety factors, which can make them heavier and more expensive. These large factors are required due to the early damage initiation and the challenges in predicting their damage development. This project will address both aspects with a focus on off-axis cracks. These cracks are usually the first significant damage that initiates upon loading the composite in tension or bending, and are hence a key reason for the large safety factors. Despite their importance, most models for off-axis cracks are limited to 90° plies and 2D. Such models have led to a basic understanding of the initiation phase on the surface, but a very limited understanding of the propagation phase in the bulk of the material.
The key challenge of this PhD project is
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