Providing confidence in durable composites

The transformative potential of composites for infrastructure – driven by their extraordinary strength- and stiffness-to-weight ratios – is as an enabling technology in three arenas key to the installation of a resilient, adaptable, low-carbon UK infrastructure:

• Development of advanced low-carbon generation capacity
• Adaptation of existing structural components for amended or extended service
• Realisation of radical structural forms

The main hurdle that composites must overcome is concern over their durability in a 50+ year infrastructure environment. The DURACOMP project will address this by developing a stochastic modelling framework specifically for infrastructure composites. This will involve a three-pronged approach based on:

• Physical testing of structural connections and joints, and materials
• Computational modelling of multi-scale structures
• Probability analysis of properties, loads and environmental (climate change) factors

Slide images:
Wind turbine blade mould from Gurit by Nick Cross
Aquamarine Oyster wave energy device via Tiday Energy Today