Publications related to Flow Properties of Tailored Net-Shape Thermoplastic Composite Preforms

Quench Detection and Temperature Measurement With Fiber Optic Sensors

Davide Uglietti, Kamil Sedlák, Christoph Müller

For the EU DEMO conductor testing, a temperature sensor based on Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) optical fiber is studied at the EPFL Swiss Plasma Center. The SULTAN test facility has been upgraded to use fiber optic sensor for temperature monitoring and quench ...

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2024

High energy-density electrostatic actuators for soft robotics

Sylvain Thomas Schaller

This thesis reports high energy-density electrostatic actuators for use in soft robotics. This thesis has two main parts: a) a detailed study of electro-adhesion using microfabricated electrodes, and b) a flexi-ble fiber-shaped linear motor. Electro-adhesi ...

EPFL2024

On the influence of flow-front orientation on stringer stiffened composite panels in water impacts

Véronique Michaud

Water impacts form the critical load case for high-performance carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) racing craft. Such events produce a peaked, non-uniform pressure distribution that travels along a hull panel as it is immersed. Current design standards ...

2024

Self-catalysed frontal polymerisation enables fast and low-energy processing of fibre reinforced polymer composites

Véronique Michaud, Baris Çaglar, Jacobus Gerardus Rudolph Staal

Frontal polymerisation has the potential to bring unprecedented reductions in energy demand and process time to produce fibre reinforced polymer composites. Production of epoxy-based fibre reinforced polymer parts with high fibre volume content, commonly e ...

2024

Moulding and Microfluidic Wet Spinning of the Soft Polymer Optical Fibers for Sensory Applications

Khushdeep Sharma

Polymer optical fibre (POFs) based wearable sensors have attracted a lot of attention in the field of healthcare and biomedical applications. They are in particular envision as the next generation of sensors for the continuous, real-time n ...

EPFL2024

Filiform Variable Stiffness Technologies for Medical Robotics

Yegor Piskarev

In recent years, soft robotics has surged in applications like wearables, drones, smart fabrics, and medical instruments. Due to their compliance, these devices excel in tasks demanding dexterity and adaptability, such as manipulation, locomotion, crash re ...

EPFL2024

Process development of pre-impregnated hybrid thin-ply composites

Alexios Argyropoulos

Thin-ply composites, obtained with recently developed fiber spreading techniques, rapidly gained industrial interest because they offer a large composite design freedom, and lead to a composite tensile strength that is close to that of the individual fiber ...

EPFL2023

Multi-scale characterization and modeling of notched strength and translaminar fracture in hybrid thin-ply composites based on different carbon fiber grades

Guillaume Clément Broggi

Owing to their high specific stiffness and strength, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites (CFRP) are ideal candidates for the development of lightweight high-performance structures. Within this family, thin-ply composites allow for wider design freedom and p ...

EPFL2023

Space-time wave packets with reduced divergence and tunable group velocity generated in free space after multi-mode fiber propagation

Tobias Kippenberg, Hao Song, Maxim Karpov, Xinzhou Su

Previously, space-time wave packets (STWPs) have been gen-erated in free space with reduced diffraction and a tunable group velocity by combining multiple frequency comb lines each carrying a single Bessel mode with a unique wave num-ber. It might be poten ...

Optica Publishing Group2023

Incorporation of Lignin in Bio-Based Resins for Potential Application in Fiber-Polymer Composites

Mário Alexandre De Jesus Garrido, Mateus De Assunção Hofmann

Bio-based resins, obtained from renewable raw materials, are a more sustainable alternative to oil-based resins for fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. The incorporation of lignin in those resins has the potential to enhance their performance. This ...

MDPI2023

Visualization and modelling of dynamic flow in fibrous preforms for liquid composite molding

Helena Luisa Teixido Pedarros

Nowadays, Liquid Composite Molding techniques are often used to manufacture high quality fiber reinforced composite parts at a relatively low cost. These involve an infiltration process, in which a liquid resin is forced to ingress into a dry fibrous porou ...

EPFL2023

Thermally Drawn Elastomer Nanocomposites for Soft Mechanical Sensors

Inès Richard, Fabien Sorin, Yunpeng Qu, Stella Andréa Françoise Laperrousaz, Chaoqun Dong, Andreas Leber

Stretchable and conductive nanocomposites are emerging as important constituents of soft mechanical sensors for health monitoring, human-machine interactions, and soft robotics. However, tuning the materials' properties and sensor structures to the targete ...

WILEY2023

Study on the possibility of Φ-OTDR sensing in hollow-core fibres

Luc Thévenaz, Malak Mohamed Hossameldeen Omar Mohamed Galal, Yuting Yang

The backscattering process in hollow core fibres shows a large similarity with Rayleigh scattering, offering the potential to be exploited for distributed sensing. A classical Φ-OTDR implementation is used to observe the backscattering signal from the surf ...

SPIE2023

Tunable pump compression and fast modulation for pulsed THz generation

Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus, Shima Rajabali, Yazan Lampert Almahmoud, Alessandro Tomasino

We demonstrate tunable dispersion compensation of femtosecond pulses at telecom wavelengths for broadband Terahertz generation in 7.5-meter fiber link using a Silicon prism pair. The prism pair enhances the amplitude of the THz E-field in InGaAs photocondu ...

IEEE2023

Humidity-insensitive optical fibers for distributed sensing applications

Luc Thévenaz, Tiago Filipe Pimentel Das Neves

Humidity is a critical environmental factor in various applications, and its temperature dependence must be considered when developing thermo-hygrometer fiber sensors. The optical fibers that constitute the sensor must have a temperature reference, which s ...

2023

Spatiotemporal dissipative soliton resonances in multimode fiber lasers

Bo Fu, Haoye Qin, Xuchen Wang, Hao Ouyang, Gang Wang

Spatiotemporal mode-locking in multimode fiber lasers is intriguing for the complex nonlinear dynamics and the increase of theoretical energy limit. In this paper, we enrich spatiotemporal mode-locking with dissipative soliton resonances, a kind of soliton ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Soft Multimaterial Magnetic Fibers and Textiles

Fabien Sorin, Syrine Mansour, Stella Andréa Françoise Laperrousaz, Chaoqun Dong, Andreas Leber, Hritwick Banerjee, Xue Wan, Rémi Andréa La Polla

Magnetically responsive soft materials are promising building blocks for the next generation of soft robotics, prosthesis, surgical tools, and smart textiles. To date, however, the fabrication of highly integrated magnetic fibers with extreme aspect ratios ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2023

Soft Bending Actuator With Fiber-Jamming Variable Stiffness and Fiber-Optic Proprioception

Sudong Lee

Soft actuators with a function of variable stiffness are beneficial to the improvement of the adaptability of robots, expanding the application areas and environments. We propose a tendon-driven soft bending actuator that can change its stiffness using fib ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2023

Supramolecular Modifications of Semicrystalline Polymers

Michael Alan Giffin

Supramolecular interactions play an important role in defining the structure and the resulting mechanical properties of materials. For instance, interchain hydrogen-bonding in PAs gives them superior strength and stiffness in engineering materials, while t ...

EPFL2023

3D printed fiber-optic nanomechanical bioprobe

Sandor Kasas, Yuguang Chen, Jiangtao Zhou, Yiping Wang

Ultrasensitive nanomechanical instruments, e.g. atomic force microscopy (AFM), can be used to perform delicate biomechanical measurements and reveal the complex mechanical environment of biological processes. However, these instruments are limited because ...

IOP Publishing Ltd2023