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Composites for energy
June 30, 2009University of Bristol Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science conference
Advanced composite materials are playing a vital role in improved design and reduced operating costs for renewable energy technologies. Research presented today [Tuesday 30 June] will highlight how wind, marine and solar power could address these challenges within the renewable energy industry.
The 'Composites for Energy' seminar has been organised jointly between Bristol University's Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS) and the University's BRITE Futures Institute, a new multidisciplinary research hub dedicated to environmental systems and technologies. The seminar is part of this year's annual ACCIS conference.
Recent studies have suggested that around 5 per cent of the UK's electricity needs could be supplied by tidal stream devices and unlike tidal barrages, they do not block tidal channels and have none of the associated environmental impacts such as loss of inter-tidal habitats for bird and marine life. Tidal stream devices capture energy from fast-flowing tidal currents, such as those found in constrained channels around headlands.
A collaborative project, 'New Materials and Methods for Energy Efficient Tidal Turbines (NEW-MMEETT),' involving the University, Aviation Enterprises Ltd (blade manufacturer), Advanced Composites Group Ltd (composites manufacturer) and Materials Engineering Research Laboratory Ltd is developing more fatigue resistant materials and improved design techniques for tidal turbine blades. This will enable a reduction in the mass of material required for blade manufacture, essential for making such devices more commercially viable, whilst also ensuring required in-service lifetimes can be met with minimum maintenance requirements.
Bristol's role within the project involves the development of a numerical modelling technique for predicting how damage grows in composite materials under cyclic loading.
Dr Stephen Hallett in ACCIS said: "The outcomes of the NEW-MMEETT project, with respect to both more fatigue resistant materials and improved design techniques, will also have strong potential for application to wind turbine blades."
Wind turbines are already a well-established technology but further design and manufacturing improvements are essential in helping the industry meet its expected growth targets over the coming years. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has predicted that wind energy could provide as much as 13 per cent of global electricity demand in 2020 and as much as 25 per cent in 2030.
Modern wind turbine blades are generally made from a combination of glass and carbon fibre reinforced plastics. During manufacture, the plastic resin is heated and cooled in a controlled manner so that it bonds with the fibres and sets to form a rigid structure.
The combination of very strong fibres surrounded by a lightweight plastic matrix enables a greater strength to weight ratio than is possible with conventional metallic materials. By carefully controlling the direction and tension of the fibres, it is also possible to create a bi-stable composite, which can snap between two distinct rigid shapes.
Dr Weaver in ACCIS said: 'We are currently focused on producing morphing blades, which can rapidly change their aerodynamic profile to best suit the current wind conditions. This has the potential to significantly relieve unwanted stresses in the blades, increasing their efficiency and helping to prolong their life. In addition to wind turbine and helicopter rotor blades, morphing composites are also being developed for aircraft wings, reducing the need for mechanically operated control surfaces.'
The Lithiated Nanoparticle Diamond Solar Energy Converter project, based at the University and funded by the energy company, E.ON, plans to exploit solar heat to produce electricity.
The project uses a novel application of commercially available, low cost diamond powder to form Lithium-doped nano-Diamond (LiD) electron emitters. The LiD emitters use solar infra-red radiation to produce thermionic emission in a vacuum valve. The current and voltage produced by the valve is converted to electrical power that may be fed into the national grid. Such a device is termed a thermionic converter and has the potential to realise theoretical conversion efficiencies of 66 per cent.
Dr Neil Fox, in the University's School of Chemistry, said: "We aim to demonstrate a working nanodiamond-based solar energy converter as an alternative technology to conventional photovoltaic solar cells. The target is to achieve operation below red heat. If this can be realised, the new thermionic converter technology will have applications in renewable energy generation particularly for Concentrated Solar Power."
University of Bristol
Recent studies have suggested that around 5 per cent of the UK's electricity needs could be supplied by tidal stream devices and unlike tidal barrages, they do not block tidal channels and have none of the associated environmental impacts such as loss of inter-tidal habitats for bird and marine life. Tidal stream devices capture energy from fast-flowing tidal currents, such as those found in constrained channels around headlands.
A collaborative project, 'New Materials and Methods for Energy Efficient Tidal Turbines (NEW-MMEETT),' involving the University, Aviation Enterprises Ltd (blade manufacturer), Advanced Composites Group Ltd (composites manufacturer) and Materials Engineering Research Laboratory Ltd is developing more fatigue resistant materials and improved design techniques for tidal turbine blades. This will enable a reduction in the mass of material required for blade manufacture, essential for making such devices more commercially viable, whilst also ensuring required in-service lifetimes can be met with minimum maintenance requirements.
Bristol's role within the project involves the development of a numerical modelling technique for predicting how damage grows in composite materials under cyclic loading.
Dr Stephen Hallett in ACCIS said: "The outcomes of the NEW-MMEETT project, with respect to both more fatigue resistant materials and improved design techniques, will also have strong potential for application to wind turbine blades."
Wind turbines are already a well-established technology but further design and manufacturing improvements are essential in helping the industry meet its expected growth targets over the coming years. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has predicted that wind energy could provide as much as 13 per cent of global electricity demand in 2020 and as much as 25 per cent in 2030.
Modern wind turbine blades are generally made from a combination of glass and carbon fibre reinforced plastics. During manufacture, the plastic resin is heated and cooled in a controlled manner so that it bonds with the fibres and sets to form a rigid structure.
The combination of very strong fibres surrounded by a lightweight plastic matrix enables a greater strength to weight ratio than is possible with conventional metallic materials. By carefully controlling the direction and tension of the fibres, it is also possible to create a bi-stable composite, which can snap between two distinct rigid shapes.
Dr Weaver in ACCIS said: 'We are currently focused on producing morphing blades, which can rapidly change their aerodynamic profile to best suit the current wind conditions. This has the potential to significantly relieve unwanted stresses in the blades, increasing their efficiency and helping to prolong their life. In addition to wind turbine and helicopter rotor blades, morphing composites are also being developed for aircraft wings, reducing the need for mechanically operated control surfaces.'
The Lithiated Nanoparticle Diamond Solar Energy Converter project, based at the University and funded by the energy company, E.ON, plans to exploit solar heat to produce electricity.
The project uses a novel application of commercially available, low cost diamond powder to form Lithium-doped nano-Diamond (LiD) electron emitters. The LiD emitters use solar infra-red radiation to produce thermionic emission in a vacuum valve. The current and voltage produced by the valve is converted to electrical power that may be fed into the national grid. Such a device is termed a thermionic converter and has the potential to realise theoretical conversion efficiencies of 66 per cent.
Dr Neil Fox, in the University's School of Chemistry, said: "We aim to demonstrate a working nanodiamond-based solar energy converter as an alternative technology to conventional photovoltaic solar cells. The target is to achieve operation below red heat. If this can be realised, the new thermionic converter technology will have applications in renewable energy generation particularly for Concentrated Solar Power."
University of Bristol
Composite Materials Current Events and Composite Materials News RSSAdapting Space-Industry Technology to Treat Breast Cancer
Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating on a study to determine if an imaging technique used by NASA to inspect the space shuttle can be used to predict tissue damage often experienced by breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.
Friction force differences could offer a new means for sorting and assembling nanotubes
Nanotubes and nanowires are promising building blocks for future integrated nanoelectronic and photonic circuits, nanosensors, interconnects and electro-mechanical nanodevices. But some fundamental issues remain to be resolved - among them, how to position and manipulate the tiny tubes.
Beyond the looking glass
While the researchers can't promise delivery to a parallel universe or a school for wizards, books like Pullman's Dark Materials and JK Rowling's Harry Potter are steps closer to reality now that researchers in China have created the first tunable electromagnetic gateway.
From graphene to graphane, now the possibilities are endless
Ever since graphene was discovered in 2004, this one-atom thick, super strong, carbon-based electrical conductor has been billed as a "wonder material" that some physicists think could one day replace silicon in computer chips.
Researchers enlist DNA to bring carbon nanotubes' promise closer to reality
A team of researchers from DuPont and Lehigh University has reported a breakthrough in the quest to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that are suitable for use in electronics, medicine and other applications.
A new approach to engineering for extreme environments
Composite materials such as fiberglass, which take on a mix of properties of their constituent compounds, have been around for decades. Now, an MIT materials scientist is taking composites to the nanoscale, where entirely new properties, not found in any of the original compounds, can emerge.
MIT: 'Nanostitching' could strengthen airplane skins, more
MIT engineers are using carbon nanotubes only billionths of a meter thick to stitch together aerospace materials in work that could make airplane skins and other products some 10 times stronger at a nominal increase in cost.
Nanoparticles Double Their Chances of Getting Into Sticky Situations
Chemistry researchers at the University of Warwick have found that tiny nanoparticles could be twice as likely to stick to the interface of two non mixing liquids than previously believed.
Next generation cloaking device demonstrated
A device that can bestow invisibility to an object by "cloaking" it from visual light is closer to reality. After being the first to demonstrate the feasibility of such a device by constructing a prototype in 2006, a team of Duke University engineers has produced a new type of cloaking device, which is significantly more sophisticated at cloaking in a broad range of frequencies.
Denser computer chips possible with plasmonic lenses that 'fly'
Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, are reporting a new way of creating computer chips that could revitalize optical lithography, a patterning technique that dominates modern integrated circuits manufacturing.
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