Materiais leves de alta performance para estruturas com auto-sensorização e auto-reparação recicláveis com aplicação no final do ciclo de vida

The main objective of SensHealRecApp is to develop, for the first time, lightweight structural composites with simultaneously integrated structural health monitoring (SHM) self-sensing and self-healing capabilities, e.g. for aerospace and automotive applications, and to promote their end-of-life recycling/reuse in civil engineering solutions, such as bituminous asphalt mixes. Firstly, the combination of both technologies in the same system is a major scientific and technological challenge that has not yet been successfully achieved and represents an innovative approach that will promote significant advances in the state of the art of multifunctional materials applied to the above markets, with strong possibilities for patenting and successful technology transfer. Secondly, the reuse of these materials in civil engineering, not as a strategy to immobilise waste, but rather to optimise the mechanical properties of bituminous mixes, e.g. fatigue and rutting resistance, and even to give them new functionalities, such as self-healing, will be an innovation factor that will contribute to the promotion of a circular economy of materials. From a scientific point of view, the sub-objectives for the achievement of the main objective are as follows: - Develop and optimise smart layered composite structures with built-in electrical damage self-sensing functionality and the ability to identify the type of damage and locate it with relative accuracy; - Develop and optimise intrinsic self-healing mechanisms based on thermal principles in response to damage detected and localised by the self-sensing system to promote longer material life in primary application; - Develop an electronic data acquisition system that can collect data at multiple points simultaneously and at a high collection frequency, and that can eventually be used as a control to trigger the self-repair system; - Deliver functional proof of concept at laboratory scale, TRL 3 to 4, combining self-detection and repair technologies simultaneously and with associated electronic reading and/or control system; - Optimize the methodology for the incorporation of end-of-life intelligent composites into bituminous mixtures, ensuring the improvement of the mechanical properties and the possible creation of the self-healing capacity of the asphalt, thus guaranteeing an added-value recycling/reuse that promotes a circular economy of materials. From a technological point of view, SensHealReacApp aims to: - Thoroughly evaluate the possibility of technology transfer or patenting of the resulting technology, in active collaboration with the institution's specialised office; - Strengthen existing collaborations with industries in the central interior region of Portugal, namely the companies mentioned in the plan, based on the potential interest already expressed in the results of the project. From an academic point of view, the implementation of this project aims to: - Provide logistical and financial support for a 3-year PhD position with a multidisciplinary work plan covering a number of project themes; - Create 2 research positions of 1 year's duration aimed at recent Masters graduates who wish to further their training with a view to entering a PhD programme; - Strengthen institutional and collaborative relationships between the 3 research centres at UBI involved in the project; - Enhance the installed experimental and numerical capacity of the institution in the core areas of the project.