Research | Funded Projects

INTEGRATED APPROACHES TO DESIGN AND CONTROL OF COMPOSITE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

The present project is finalized to the development and implementation of integrated monitoring and control systems to be applied in composite manufacturing. The following schedule for the activities to be performed is considered at this stage:1. Selection of innovative and promising processes to be analyzed;2. Theoretical formulation and practical implementation of multi-scale models describing the different and relevant physics involved in the selected processes. The employment of hard, soft and hybrid-combined computing techniques is considered at this stage; 3. Implementation of control systems based on opportune criteria. This goal will be reasonably achieved by means of the application of optimization algorithms, such as genetic algorithms, simplex method, simulated annealing, particle swarm optimization and fuzzy set theory.4. Development of new dedicate sensor configurations, able to detect signals intimately related to resin flow and preform saturation, temperature and degree of cure, void content, stress-strain development;5. Validation of the proposed sensing strategies by comparison with well-established techniques (fiber optics, for instance);6. Design and start-up of laboratory scale manufacturing process setups and implementation of the aforementioned sensors in the tools;7. Application of the developed system to the implemented benchmark.