IMX Seminar Series - Boats vs Waves, and Other Ways to Break Composite Materials

Due to their light weight, high strength, stiffness and durability, fibre reinforced polymer composite materials are often the materials of choice for high performance and efficient land, sea, air and space vehicles. Mark will give an overview of the University of Auckland’s Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing and Design and discuss research projects related to mechanics of composite materials and structures. This will include experimental testing and numerical modelling of water impact of high-performance boats, effects of dynamic and fatigue loads on failure mechanics of laminates, core materials and sandwich structures, and understanding how the way that we manufacture composite materials influences their performance. Mark will also discuss how the techniques developed from this work have led to new areas of research including assessing demisability and re-useability of composite spacecraft, improving recycling and re-use of polymers and composites, using fluid-structure coupling to enhance comfort of additively manufactured foot orthotics, and improving how we mitigate the effects of waves on coastlines and coastal structures.

Bio: Professor Mark Battley, Department of Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering and Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing and Design, The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
 
Mark did his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Auckland, obtaining a BE (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD on the off-axis stiffness characterisation of fibre reinforced plastics. He then worked for 13 years as a Research Engineer at a NZ Government Research Institute (Industrial Research Limited) in Auckland, continuing to have a focus on mechanics of composite materials. During this time, he also spent a year doing teaching and research at the Lightweight Structures Group, KTH Stockholm, Sweden. Mark then worked for the University of Auckland’s Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, while running his own consultancy company. In 2015 he was employed by the University of Auckland in the Department of Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering. From 2019 to 2024 Mark was the Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Engineering and is also the Deputy Director at the Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing and Design.