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WELCOME TO THE
CENTRE FOR INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY IN COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Development & Characterisation
CITeC is a research group created in 2011 at UFSJ for the development and characterisation of laminate, particulate, hybrid and structural composites consisted of polymer and ceramic matrices for aeronautical, automotive, leisure, civil construction and orthopaedic applications. One of the pillars of the group is the research of sustainable materials through the use of natural fibres and recycled wastes. The group stands out for the use of statistical techniques in the evaluation of composite materials, counting on a significant number of articles published in journals of high impact. National and international collaborators have been contributing to the effective growing of the group. Visiting fellows, MSc and PhD students have been also a great motivation for our research team.
CITeC has four laboratories in the area of composite materials, namely: (i) Manufacture, (ii) Characterisation, (iii) Applied Numerical Simulation and (iv) Precision Engineering.
CORE ACADEMIC TEAM
The People Behind the Group
DIRECTOR
CO-DIRECTOR
TULIO HALLAK PANZERA
KURT STRECKER
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Dr Panzera works on sandwich structures, smart materials,
hybrid polymers, and cementitious composites.
Dr Strecker works on ceramics, cementitious and geopolymer composites.
TECHNICIANS
COLLABORATORS
Fabrizio Scarpa
UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL (UK)
LABS & FACILITIES
The numerical simulation laboratory has 20 workstation containing Hyperworks, Abaqus and CFX-Ansys for structural and fluid analysis. It performs linear and non-linear, static and dynamic simulations of isotropic and anisotropic composite materials.
PRECISION ENGINEERING
The precision engineering laboratory relies on a test bench for aerostatic bearings using porous composite materials as air restrictors. It is worth mentioning that the CITeC research group is a pioneer in the study of cementitious composites as porous restrictor for aerostatic bearings.
APPLIED NUMERICAL SIMULATION
MANUFACTURING
The manufacturing laboratory has an adequate infrastructure for the processing of polymeric and ceramic materials, including sieving process, knife mill, Marshall hammer, cold and hot hydraulic presses, salt spray / humidity chambers, precision cutting machine, rectifier, lathe, vacuum pumps and desiccators.
CHARACTERISATION
The characterization laboratory features a 100kN universal Shimadzu AGX-Plus testing machine equipped with video-extensometry, compression testing machine (EMIC 100tf), charpy impact testing, Shimadzu dynamic ultra hardness tester, ultrasonic and resonance for determination of elastic properties, gas permeameter, dilatometer and a chamber equipped with high vacuum pump for determination of density, apparent porosity and water absorption.
OUR SERVICES
TENSILE TESTING
Polymers and polymer composites are tested according to ASTM standards, such as:
ASTM D3039/D3039M-17 Standard test method for tensile properties of polymer matrix composite materials.
ASTM D638-14 Standard test method for tensile properties of plastics.
COMPRESSION TESTING
Polymers, ceramics and cementitious composites are tested under compression considering the protocols of the following standards:
· ASTM D695-15 Standard test method for compressive properties of rigid plastics.
· ASTM C1424-15 Standard test method for monotonic compressive strength of advanced ceramics at ambient temperature.
· BS EN 12390 Testing hardened concrete - Part 3: Compressive strength of test specimens.
BENDING TESTING
Three-point bending are used to characterise ceramics, polymers and cementitious composites according to:
· ASTM D790 - 17 Standard test methods for flexural properties of unreinforced and reinforced plastics and electrical insulating materials.
· ASTM C1341-18 Standard test method for flexural properties of continuous fiber-reinforced advanced ceramic composites.
· ASTM C348 - 18 Standard test method for flexural strength of hydraulic-cement mortars.
· BS EN 658-3 Advanced technical ceramics. Mechanical properties of ceramic composites at room temperature. Determination of flexural strength.
IMPACT TESTING
The Charpy impact test is performed following the recommendations of the testing machine manufacturer and ISO 179-1 Plastics – Determination of Charpy impact properties – Part 1: Non-instrumented impact test, 2010.
ULTRA MICRO HARDNESS TESTING
Dynamic micro Vickers test is carried out based on the recommendations of Shimadzu manual.
DENSITY, POROSITY & WATER ABSORPTION
Apparent density, bulk density, apparent porosity and water absorption are determined based on Archimedes´ principle, following the recommendations of:
BS 10545-3 Determination of water absorption, apparent porosity, apparent relative density and bulk density.
ASTM D792 - 13 Standard Test Methods for Density and Specific Gravity (Relative Density) of Plastics by Displacement.
GAS PERMEAMETER
The oxygen permeability test is carried out using an oxygen gas permeameter similar to that described by Cabrera and Lynsdale (Cabrera JG, Lynsdale CJ. A new gas permeameter for measuring the permeability of mortar and concrete. Mag Concrete Res 1988; 40(144):177-182).
ULTRASOUND ANALYSIS
The ultra-pulse velocity test follows the protocols of:
· BS 1881- Part 203 Measurement of velocity of ultrasonic pulses in concrete, 1986.
· ASTM E494-15 Standard practice for measuring ultrasonic velocity in materials.
· ASTM C597-16 Standard test method for pulse velocity through concrete.
RESONANCE FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
This device can be used to measure the dynamic modulus, dynamic Poisson´s ratio and ultrasonic pulse velocity or ceramics and concretes. The recommendations of the following standards are considered:
BS 1881-209 Testing concrete. Recommendations for the measurement of dynamic modulus of elasticity.
ASTM C215-14 Standard Test Method for Fundamental Transverse, Longitudinal, and Torsional Resonant Frequencies of Concrete Specimens.
ASTM C623 - 92 Standard Test Method for Young's Modulus, Shear Modulus, and Poisson's Ratio for Glass and Glass-Ceramics by Resonance.
PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS
A full set of sieves from 4 to 400 US-Tyler is available to perform a particle size distribution analysis according to ASTM E1617-09 Standard practice for reporting particle size characterisation data.
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
Hyperworks and Abaqus provide capabilities of modelling composite structures in different ways. Depending on the type of composite being modelled, material data available, boundary conditions and also the desired results, a particular approach may work better than other. A multi-scale analyses can be conducted according to the composite material involved.
LASER CUTTING MACHINE
&
3D PRINTING
Laser cutting machine - Robotech (RTJ1390-150W)
1300x900mm
3D-Printer - Creality (Ender 3S)
CONTACT US
Praça Frei Orlando, 170 - Centro, São João Del Rei - MG, 36307-352, Brazil
+55(32)33795879