Sustainability has become a big global issue due to stringent laws introduced in various countries. That has made natural resources very attractive to manufacture composites, the group of materials which is growing in importance and demand. However, often the natural reinforcements, such as natural fibres, are not thermally stable, making the composite products vulnerable under fire situation. The researchers at CACM has been successful in designing proper fire retardants that have worked in natural fibre or biochar (derived from landfill) reinforced composites, but have also discovered that fire retardancy often comes at the cost of mechanical properties. The task is now to use hybrid composites and/or functionalisation of the reinforcements to produce good mechanical properties.
This project aims at using protein as fire retardant and at the same time hybridisation to improve the mechanical performance of the composite product, reinforced with natural reinforcements. This work will be related to much a bigger programme (funded by MBIE) that is being carried out in conjunction with Altitude Aerospace Interiors Ltd., Auckland (of AIM Group) and the marine industry. Extensive fire performance tests will be carried using standard Cone Calorimeter and Vertical Burn tests. Time permitting, some fire modelling work will be carried out using a modified CFD package - it is expected that the students will interact closely with a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student.
Undergraduate
An improved sustainable composite product that can be used in aerospace, marine and building industries.
Good mechanics of materials knowledge
Lab allocations have not been finalised