About
190
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Introduction
Dr Leif Asp's research is focused on carbon fibre composites for aircraft applications. More recently the research has been directed towards development and understanding of multifunctional composites, such as structural battery composite materials. The research aims at understanding and modelling of composite materials performance.
Leif is past President of the International Committee on Composite Materials (ICCM) and past President of the European Society on Composite Materials (ESCM).
Additional affiliations
December 1995 - May 2000
The Aeronautical Research Insititute of Sweden, FFA
Position
- Engineer
Description
- Research on damage tolerant composite materials structures for aircraft.
August 2017 - present
International Committee on Composite Materials, ICCM
Position
- CEO
May 2017 - present
Publications
Publications (190)
Ultra-thin tow-based discontinuous composites are an emerging class of composite materials which can be used for high performance applications in a wide range of industries. They offer significant advantages compared to continuous composites, such as reduced waste material, enhanced formability and even increased mechanical properties. However, the...
The structural battery (see figure) is a modern battery concept that integrates mechanical strength and conductive properties of carbon fibres, that hence constitute an intimate part of both electrodes [1]. The core components in a structural battery are composites, developed to provide multiple functions. The structural electrolyte, for instance,...
Structural batteries refer to the multifunctional device capable of both storing electrical energy and bearing mechanical loads concurrently. In this context, carbon fibers emerge as a compelling choice of material and serve dual purpose by storing energy and providing stiffness and strength to the battery. Previous investigation has demonstrated p...
Multifunctional structural batteries are of high and emerging interest in a wide variety of high‐strength and lightweight applications. Structural batteries typically use pristine carbon fiber as the negative electrode, functionalized carbon fiber as the positive electrode, and a mechanically robust lithium‐ion transporting electrolyte. However, el...
Carbon fibres are multifunctional materials considered for the realisation of structural battery electrodes. Processing conditions affect the carbonaceous microstructure of carbon fibres. The microstructure dictates the fibre‘s mechanical properties, i. e. modulus and strength, as well as its electrochemical capacity. Here, carbon fibre processing...
Tow-cased discontinuous composites are an attractive alternative material to conventional continuous composites as they offer in-plane isotropy, enhanced manufacturability allowing to achieve complex 3D shapes with high curvatures and local reinforcement in critical areas, while also maintaining high strength and stiffness, therefore expanding the...
Most products today have several functions, but these are achieved by integrating different monofunctional devices and/or materials in a system. Having several functions simultaneously in one single material has many potential advantages, such as a structural material that can also store energy, have self-sensing or self-healing capability or any o...
Among micro-scale imaging technologies of materials, X-ray micro-computed tomography has evolved as most popular choice, even though it is restricted to limited field-of-views and long acquisition times. With recent progress in small-angle X-ray scattering these downsides of conventional absorption-based computed tomography have been overcome, allo...
Tow-based discontinuous composites manufactured with ultra-thin tapes display high stiffness, strength, and in-plane isotropy, thus competing with composite laminates. Their complex 3D microstructure affects the mechanical response, in turn demanding 3D generators that capture the tape waviness, resin pockets, and thickness and fibre content variat...
Short glass fibre injection moulded composites, used in interior and exterior automotive parts, are exposed to complex stress states, for example during a crash. As the fibre scale dominates the composite’s material properties, numerical models need to account for the local fibre orientation. In recent years, mould flow simulation results have been...
Carbon fibre based electrodes offer the potential to significantly improve the combined electrochemical and mechanical performance of structural batteries in future electrified transport. This review compares carbon fibre based electrodes...
The rising demand for energy, coupled with the environmental consequences of CO 2 emissions primarily stemming from the combustion of fossil fuels, has prompted the exploration of sustainable solutions for energy generation and storage. Specifically, the automotive industry is transitioning to electric-powered and lightweight vehicles equipped with...
The effect of confining a liquid electrolyte into a polymer matrix was studied by means of Raman spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry, dielectric spectroscopy, and rheology. The polymer matrix was obtained from thermal curing ethoxylated bisphenol A dimethacrylate while the liquid...
Tow Based Discontinuous Composites (TBDCs) are a new class of composite materials which combine in-plane isotropy, high strength and stiffness and enhanced manufacturability. However, due to their complicated micro-architecture, characterising the performance of these materials and predicting their response is challenging. This work develops a comp...
Hydrogen is a sustainable alternative to conventional fuels, and it may be obtained with near zero carbon footprint. However, hydrogen storage remains a key challenge, and the use of composite tanks has gained significant interest over the last few years. In addition, thin-ply composites promote fibre damage by delaying matrix microcracking and fre...
This study investigates the viability of implementing multifunctional structural power composites in a four-seater air taxi, the CityAirbus. For a given specific energy of the power source, the cruise endurance can be approximately doubled by using structural power composites as opposed to conventional batteries. Replacing all the eligible composit...
Purpose
Structural battery composites (SBCs) are multifunctional carbon fibre composites that can be used as structural elements in battery electric vehicles to store energy. By decreasing the weight of the vehicle, energy consumption in the use phase can be reduced, something that could be counteracted by the energy-intensive carbon fibre producti...
Multifunctional materials offer a possibility to create lighter and more resource‐efficient products and thereby improve energy efficiency. Structural battery composites are one type of such a multifunctional material with potential to offer massless energy storage for electric vehicles and aircraft. Although such materials have been demonstrated,...
Structural batteries are multifunctional composite materials that can carry mechanical load and store electrical energy. Their multifunctionality requires an ionically conductive and stiff electrolyte matrix material. For this purpose, a bi-continuous polymer electrolyte is used where a porous solid phase holds the structural integrity of the syste...
X-ray computed tomography scans can provide detailed information about the state of the material after manufacture and in service. X-ray computed tomography aided engineering (XAE) was recently introduced as an automated process to transfer 3D image data to finite element models. The implementation of a structure tensor code for material orientatio...
Carbon fibre (CF) based structural batteries is a type of battery designed to sustain mechanical loads. In this paper, a fully coupled thermo-electro-chemo-mechanical computational modelling framework for CF-based structural batteries is presented. We consider the combined effects of lithium insertion in the carbon fibres leading to insertion strai...
The present work describes a methodology to compute equivalent volumes representing the microstructure of 3D-printed continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastics, based on a statistical characterization of the fiber distribution. In contrast to recent work, the methodology herein presented determines the statistically equivalent fiber distribution di...
In this paper, electrode laminae consisting of carbon fibres embedded in structural battery electrolyte (CF-SBE electrodes) are characterized with respect to their multifunctional (i.e. combined electrochemical and mechanical) performance utilizing experimental and numerical techniques. The studied material is made from commercially available polya...
Multifunctional materials facilitate lightweight and slender structural solutions for numerous applications. In transportation, construction materials that can act as a battery, and store electrical energy, will contribute to realization of highly energy efficient vehicles and aircraft. Herein, a multicell structural battery composite laminate, wit...
Accurate modelling of fibre-reinforced composites requires anisotropic material models. Structure tensor analysis of X-ray 3D images has been shown to provide fast and robust estimation of local structural orientations in fibre-reinforced composites. We present two mapping algorithms which can be used to map estimated local orientations onto finite...
Structural batteries consist of carbon fibres embedded in a porous structural battery electrolyte (SBE), which is composed of two continuous phases: a solid polymer skeleton and a liquid electrolyte containing Li-salt. In this paper we elaborate on a computational modelling framework to study the electro-chemo-mechanical properties of such structur...
Carbon fibre electrodes can enable a solid-state battery to carry mechanical load as normal construction materials. The multifunctionality is promising for most lightweight applications. Like all electrode materials, both volume and elastic moduli of the carbon fibre electrodes change during battery cycling. Such changes jeopardize the mechanical i...
Structural carbon fibre composite batteries are a type of multifunctional batteries that combine the energy storage capability of a battery with the load-carrying ability of a structural material. To extract the current from the structural battery cell, current collectors are needed. However, current collectors are expensive, hard to connect to the...
Recent advancements in Li and Li-ion based energy storage resulted in development of novel electrode materials for higher energy density which are finding their applications in transportation. There appears to be a limitation in improvement of specific energy of the system based solely on design of material compositions for multivalent intercalatio...
A battery cell includes an anode, a cathode, and a separator between the anode and the cathode, wherein at least one of the anode or the cathode includes at least a carbon fiber ply comprising carbon fibers, the carbon fiber ply having a thickness of less than 90 micrometers. Also disclosed are a battery and an aircraft including such battery cell,...
The present work describes a computational mechanism based failure analysis conducted for 3D-printed continuous carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs), which could not be seen in the available literature. The material failure is investigated based on intraply failure evaluation and adopts different failure criteria for the mater...
One way to reduce the environmental impact of an electric vehicle is to reduce the vehicle's mass. This can be done by substitution of conventional materials such as steel, aluminium, and plastics with carbon fibre composites, or possibly even with structural battery composite materials. In the latter case, another consequence is that the size of t...
Tape-based discontinuous composite is a relatively new type of composite material that offers improved mechanical properties for similar process-ability compared to Sheet Moulding Compound or Bulk Moulding Compound. This makes it potentially attractive for the automotive industry. In this paper, a thin-ply carbon fibre reinforced polypropylene-base...
Carbon fibres show great potential as multifunctional negative electrode for novel structural battery composites – a rechargeable electrochemical cell with structural function. The electrochemical performance of carbon materials can be enhanced with nitrogen heteroatoms, which conveniently are inherent in polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-based carbon fibres...
Electric Vehicles
In article number 2000093 by Leif E. Asp and co‐workers, renewable electrical energy stored in the body‐in‐white and interior panels of future electric cars. Structural batteries made from carbon fiber‐reinforced composites reduce vehicle weight to increase efficiency and driving range.
Carbon fibers (CF), commonly used in the structure of airplanes or cars, can also work as conductive electrodes in “structural batteries” for distributed energy storage. To this aim CF should be chemically functionalized, which is challenging due to their complex geometry and surface. Here, we describe an “all-electrostatic” approach taking advanta...
Engineering materials that can store electrical energy in structural load paths can revolutionize lightweight design across transport modes. Stiff and strong batteries that use solid‐state electrolytes and resilient electrodes and separators are generally lacking. Herein, a structural battery composite with unprecedented multifunctional performance...
This data in brief article describes a dataset used for an X-ray computer tomography aided engineering process consisting of X-ray computer tomography data and finite element models of non-crimp fabric glass fibre reinforced composites. Additional scanning electron microscope images are provided for the validation of the fibre volume fraction. The...
Structural batteries are multifunctional composites that combine load-bearing capacity with electro-chemical energy storage capability. The laminated architecture is considered in this paper, whereby restriction is made to a so called half-cell in order to focus on the main characteristics and provide a computational tool for future parameter studi...
In this study two automated segmentation methodologies of an X-ray computer tomography based numerical analysis are compared. These are then assessed based on their influence on the stress distribution results of finite element models of glass fibre reinforced composites made out of non-crimp fabrics. Non-crimp fabrics reinforced composites are com...
In this study a complete procedure is presented of how to generate finite element models based on X-ray computer tomography data on the fibre bundle scale for non-crimp fabric reinforced composites. Non-crimp fabric reinforced composites are nowadays extensively used in the load carrying parts of wind turbine blades. Finite element analysis based o...
Structural power composites are multifunctional materials with simultaneous load bearing and energy storing functionality. This is made possible due to carbon fibers’ ability to act not only as structural reinforcement materials, but also as electrode components. A crucial component of structural power composites is the structural electrolyte that...
In this paper, a novel modelling framework to estimate system level performance of electric vehicles utilizing a structural battery composite material is presented. Electrical and mechanical properties are derived from material data of the constituents, device design and connection/layup schemes. Knowledge of the multifunctional, i.e. electrical an...
Structural batteries can simultaneously store electrical energy and carry mechanical load, being similar to both laminated carbon fiber composites and lithium ion batteries. The matrix in a structural battery must both conduct ions and transfer load between the fibers, made possible with a phase-separated combination of a solid polymer and a liquid...
This paper presents a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in structural battery composites research. Structural battery composites are a class of structural power composites aimed to provide mass-less energy storage for electrically powered structural systems. Structural battery composites are made from carbon fibres in a structural electr...
In this paper we apply a recently developed methodology to assess the compressive strength of an aero-engine component based on measured fibre misalignment angles. The component is a fan outlet guide vane made from a carbon fibre reinforced polymer, which was manufactured and tested by GKN Aerospace in Sweden. The main novelty with this work is tha...
Carbon fibres are extensively used for their high specific mechanical properties. Exploiting their high axial stiffness and strength, they are employed to reinforce polymer matrix materials in advanced composites. However, carbon fibres are not isotropic. Data of the elastic properties in the other directions of the fibres are still largely unknown...