Ricerc@Sapienza

The goal of supporting and directing tissue regeneration requires the design of new, advanced materials, with features like biocompatibility, biodegradability and adequate mechanical properties. Our work was focused on developing a new injectable biomimetic composite material, based on a peptidic hydrogel and calcium phosphates with the aim of mimicking the chemical composition of natural bone tissue. Arg-Gly-Asp-grafted chitosan was used to promote cell adhesion.

Lightweight composites combining electromagnetic wave absorption and excellent mechanical properties are required in spacecraft and aircraft. A one- dimensional metamaterial absorber consisting of a stack of glass fibre/epoxy layers and graphene nanoplatelets/epoxy films was proposed and fabricated through a facile air-spraying based printing technology and a liquid resin infusion method. The production process allows an optimum dispersion of graphene nanoplatelets, promoting adhesion and mechanical integration of the glass fibre/epoxy layers with the graphene nanoplatelets/epoxy films.

This paper deals with the numerical evaluation of the magnetic field produced by a wireless power transfer (WPT) system in an electrical vehicle (EV) made by carbon-fiber (CF) laminates that are modeled as homogeneous anisotropic layers. The numerically calculated magnetic field generated by a 7.7 kW WPT system operating at 85 kHz has been compared with the reference levels of the ICNIRP guidelines. The main conclusion is that the anisotropy of the composite laminate does not play a relevant role at the considered frequency.

As an emerging nondestructive diagnostic and monitoring technique, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) imagery is attracting more attention. In this regard, new THz image processing algorithms based on infrared thermography (IRT) concepts are greatly needed, since most IRT imagery modalities are fast for in-line industrial inspection. However, this scenario is difficult due to some physical constraints to be reached, although this idea should be followed to avoid the loss of useful information during image processing.

Contemporary thermoset composites using natural fibres offer a wide range of strength performance. Recently, the combination of flax and carbon fibres has received an increasing attention, mainly dictated by the possibility of merging in a single material high damping properties of flax fibres and the well-known high mechanical properties of carbon fibres. Evaluation of low energy impact damage defects has received a little coverage even if these composites are well known to be susceptible to impact damage.

Natural fibers, including mineral and plant fibers, are increasingly used for polymer composite materials due to their low environmental impact. In this paper, thermographic non-destructive inspection techniques were used to evaluate and characterize basalt, jute/hemp and bagasse fibers composite panels. Different defects were analyzed in terms of impact damage, delaminations and resin abnormalities. Of particular interest, homogeneous particleboards of sugarcane bagasse, a new plant fiber material, were studied.