New projects focusing on sustainable coatings and numerical modelling

The Swedish Research Council has decided to give funding for two new research projects at The School of Engineering. One of the projects concerns the development of more resistant component coatings while the other is related to numerical modelling of thin structures.

The project “Design and electrodeposition of high entropy films” aims at taking a first step in the development of a whole new concept for producing more sustainable coating films. This kind of surface layers will make materials more resistant to high working temperatures and harsh environments in general.

“Many industries are facing increasing demands on sustainable components with longer lifetimes. One way of meeting the requirements is to develop coating solutions that better protect the components from heat, corrosion and other kinds of negative impact from the surrounding environment,” says Caterina Zanella, associate professor in surface technology, who is leading the project.

The other research project, “The Superimposed Finite Element Method for Structural, Flow and Acoustics Modelling”, concerns computational mechanics and aims at efficient computer simulation of thin structures inside biological or mechanical objects.

“Numerical modelling of thin structures, such as reinforcement fibers embedded in plastic components, blood flow in veins and tissues or transport of pollutants through systems of crack, is often quite costly. We want to develop a more flexible and cost-efficient method than those available today,” says Peter Hansbo, project leader and professor in computational engineering.

The two new projects belong to the scientific field of materials and manufacturing and are included in Jönköping University’s research and education environment SPARK, which focuses on knowledge intensive product realization. The projects receive 6.6 MSEK in total from the Swedish Research Council and will run in 4 years.