Creation of new properties and development of uses for plastics and composites

Aim of project
The aim of the project is the study of new kinds of materials with special proprieties for use in the car and air industry. The team from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering (Anna Boczkowska, Ph.D.) creates new kinds of materials by selection of the optimum type of composition of parts in order to obtain the required proprieties. The analysis of possibility of new uses of the prepared materials in car and air technology is realized at the Faculty of Automotive and Construction Machinery Engineering. The use of materials and composites in mechanical engineering for vehicles and airplanes considerably increases because of the advantage of this kind of materials: high proper durability, possibility of processing, damping, possibility of absorption of great energy, corrosion resistance etc. In car construction, the percentage of use of artificial materials grew from a few percent ten years ago to a dozen or so at present. The level of use of this kind of materials increases in different fields of the economy as well. The proposed subject matter is very interesting due to considerable variety of properties of artificial materials and composites. In this group, special consideration should be given to elastomers (practically incompressible materials), foam and sponge (materials of large non-linear compressibility and negative Poisson ratio), composites built from layers of different materials (for instance, metal – fibre). Every kind of material requires a different description of properties. Smart materials are a separate, quickly developing group, reversibly changing their properties due to an external stimulus.

Expected results
Elastomer for use as a shimmy damper mounted at landing gears of small planes – material for a laboratory model was made at the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering (Anna Boczkowska, Ph.D.). Testing made in the landing gear laboratory of the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw confirmed the usefulness of the damper – it is planned to use it in the gear landing produced by the firm Margański & Mysłowski after investigations at the Institute of Aviation. Research of polyurethane foams used in car seats, produced by the firm FAURECIA POLAND. Creating materials of large energy dissipation in modern constructions of car bumpers, protecting round road barriers, energy-consuming units in chasses of helicopters. The continuation of investigations of properties of carbon/carbon composites as a modern friction material for brakes and possibility of use in co-operation with the Landing Gear Laboratory of the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw.

An important part of the project will be to create more recyclable plastics and composites.

In the proposed area of research there are significant implementation possibilities, especially in the car and air industry. Article in the journal Polymers No. 7-8, 2008, 53 p. 40-46: Anna Boczkowska, Kamil Babski, Jerzy Osiński, Piotr Żach “Modeling of characteristics with compression and functional properties of hyperelastic polyurethane materials applied in mechanical engineering”