Researching materials for cars of tomorrow with ProMat

Report on research stay

Jan Yorrick Dietrich studied Process-Oriented Materials Research (ProMat) in the Master programme. He was awarded third place at the Hamburg Aviation Young Talent Awards for his Master thesis. Jan is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Faserinstitut Bremen, FIBRE. During his studies, he carried out a research project at the Fraunhofer IFAM in Bremen. In the report, Jan explains how his experiences ultimately prepared him for his doctorate.

Jan moved to Bremen from Lower Saxony in 2019. After finishing his Bachelor of Engineering at the Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences, he went on to get his Master's in Process-Oriented Materials Research (ProMat) at the University of Bremen. While he was studying, he mostly worked on fibre-reinforced plastics. These composites can be used to build rotor blades for wind turbines, sports cars or aircraft, for example. The big plus is that they're much lighter than metal parts.

Jan first got interested in fibre-reinforced plastics back in 2018 when he was writing his Bachelor thesis on fibre-reinforced epoxy resins. They're used in aircraft, for example. The ProMat programme's individual curriculum let Jan focus on his favourite subject during his Master's. He put together his study plan from over 350 courses in all STEM subjects. His mentor helped him make his choice. The mentors at ProMat are experienced scientists and specialists in their fields, and they're there to support the students in individual discussions

Experimental experience at the Fraunhofer IFAM in Bremen

Jan got a keen interest in aircraft and fibre-reinforced plastics, which is why he ended up at the Fraunhofer IFAM for his research stay. The Institute of Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials, IFAM, is based at the University of Bremen campus. They're doing all kinds of research and development there, like on adhesive bonding techniques, surfaces, moulding and functional materials. IFAM's products and technologies are mostly aimed at sectors that show a lot of promise, like mobility, aviation, energy, maritime technologies, medical technology and life sciences.

Because of the travel restrictions during the pandemic, Jan had to complete his mandatory stay abroad in Germany as part of the ProMat Master programme. 'I was very happy to have a renowned partner institute like IFAM just around the corner,' says Jan looking back.

For eight weeks, Jan helped Dr. Katharina Koschek on a project about bio-based materials. The idea of the project was to make the cars of tomorrow more sustainable. While planes have to be mainly lightweight, the issue of sustainability is becoming more and more important for cars. Jan had mostly been working on aircraft up to then. The change in perspective was a real eye-opener for him. He also got to know a lot of new colleagues at IFAM.

‘Dry’ material? Yes, but ‘exciting’!

Jan did his own experiments in the labs at IFAM. He worked on natural fibre-reinforced composite materials that can be used for car interior trim. He specifically looked into how pre-drying affects natural fibres, the fiber-volume content, heating rates and post-drying. He did all this under the microscope to see how the fibres and plastics behave when they're combined. He found that the samples that had been post-dried (i.e. chemically degraded) and the samples with a lower fibre volume content exhibited stronger spring-in behaviour. The so-called spring-in or spring-back effect describes the issue of components changing shape after being taken out of the mould because of residual stresses left over from the manufacturing process.

In his experiments, Jan was in charge of the production process, as well as analysing and evaluating the results. 'I was given free rein to plan and carry out my experiments independently and with a lot of responsibility. I really enjoyed that,' says Jan. Until then, he had mainly worked with virtual design and simulation. There are also theoretical models for the spring-in behaviour that can be used to predict how the material will behave and transfer it to other geometries. Jan has learned that it's really important to estimate material behaviour and process-material interactions, also via simulation. The high experimental effort and costs involved have made this abundantly clear.

A study plan customised for simulation

Jan's currently working on his doctorate at the Faserinstitut Bremen. He's working on welding thermoplastic composites. He's doing this mainly through simulation, but also by experiment. 'I first got into simulations at the end of my bachelor's degree and decided: I'd really like to be able to do that one day,' he says, looking back. Jan thought the ProMat Master's programme, along with the work he did with his mentor at Faserinstitut, got him ready really well for his doctorate.