Ghent University - Mechanics of Materials and Structures

Core Business

Mechanics of materials ; dynamic testing (impact/fatigue) ; NDT&E (Moire, optical fibres, ultrasound)

The head of the Mechanics of Materials and Structures research group is Prof. Joris DEGRIECK. Together with two colleagues (Wim VAN PAEPEGEM, Patricia VERLEYSEN), he coordinates the research activities in the group.For the moment, there are 7 PhD students and 5 persons technical and administrative personnel.

Research is concentrated in three domains:

• mechanics of materials (focus on fibre-reinforced plastics)
• dynamic loading (impact, fatigue)
• NDT&E (moirÈ techniques, optical fibre sensors, ultrasonic inspection)

In each of these domains, our research is always a combination of experimental investigation and numerical simulation (finite element analysis).

In the laboratory, facilities are available for autoclave processing and resin transfer moulding of fibre-reinforced composites.

1. Annual report

The test equipment can be classified with respect to the three research domains:1. Mechanics of materials

• electromechanical Instron testing machine
• several fixtures for tests in tension, compression, interlaminar shear, three- and four-point bending

2. Dynamic loading (impact/fatigue)

• large-scale impact facility for simulation of bird strike
• pneumatic launch facility
• drop weight test
• split Hopkinson tensile bar setup
• high-speed drum camera
• fatigue bending device
• servohydraulic Instron testing machine (fatigue in tension/compression/bending)

3. NDT&E

• automated ultrasonic inspection facility
• optical fibre sensors + measurement equipment
• MoirÈ techniques (shadow MoirÈ, digital phase-shift MoirÈ)

Beside the experimental facilities, there are licenses for the commercial finite element codes SAMCEF and ABAQUS. With these programs, a wide range of problems can be simulated (static / dynamic, linear / highly nonlinear, built-in material models / user material models).