Department of Composite Structures & System
- Head of Division
Jang, Hong-kyu
Department Introduction
Department of Composite Structures & System is focusing on the wind, automotive, ships/aerospace/defense industries, and striving to develop national strategic technologies related to energy, eco-friendly, and national defense. We conduct research and development on high-performance, high-functional novel lightweight structural components and systems based on the design, analysis, testing, and certification technology of high-performance fiber-reinforced composite materials and structures.
Major Activities
- Successfully completed one of the certification test (static test) of an extra-large size 8MW class (Blade length: 100m) offshore wind turbine blade
- Expansion of the blade test facility (test capability: up to 100m blade) and developing test technology (World largest scale)
- Development of high fiber content (30 vol% or more) thermoplastic (PA6 resin-based) intermediate material using carbon long fiber non-woven fabric
- Structural design of carbon composites seat-cross member (S/Cross MBR) designed for high-speed injection pultrusion process
- The design of radar absorbing structure for aircraft application.
Major Research Area
- Commercial development of large scale wind turbine blade including design/analysis and testing/certification technologies
- Development of crash design/analysis-test/evaluation technology for carbon composite-based structure and commercial development of lightweight bodies/parts for future mobility using the technology
- Development of design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing technologies of electromagnetic-wave absorbing composites and their application
Future Research Plan
- Development and commercialization of the 8MW class wind turbine blade
- with the goal to supply domestic large-scale offshore wind farms
- with the goal to develop and commercialize the world-first and world-longest blade (approximately 100m) - Development of adhesive-type modular blades over 70m for overcoming onshore transportation limitation
- Development of the quality assurance, safety guarantee and reliability improvement technology for offshore wind turbine blades
- Development of crash design/analysis-test/evaluation technology for carbon composite-based structure and commercial development of lightweight bodies/parts for future mobility using the technology
- Commercialization of millimeter-wave absorbers for 5G communication
- Development of design, analysis, manufacturing, and testing technologies of stealth antenna and their application.
Major R&D Activities
Development of an extra-large size 8MW class (Blade length: 100m) offshore wind turbine blade and expansion of the blade test facility (Test capability: up to 100m blade)
- Developing an extra-large size 8MW class (Blade length: 100m) offshore wind turbine blade with Doosan Heavy Industries and Human Composites
- The full-scale blade static test for certification has been successfully completed
- The remained fatigue and post-fatigue static test of the blade will be followed in 2022 - The blade test laboratory has been successfully expanded to test up to 100m blade (World largest scale)
- Extra-large size blade testing technology is developed including test rig and winch simultaneous controlling technology and fatigue testing technology using multi-axis loading
※ The extra-large size 8MW class offshore wind turbine model is the flagship model for supplying domestic large-scale offshore wind farms in Korea
Technology development of crash-absorbing integrated structures applying (recycled) carbon long fiber thermoplastic composites
- Capacity-building through development for the full-cycle technology of 「design/analysis-prototype-test/evaluation」 of thermoplastic composites with excellent crash performance by utilizing (recycled) carbon long fibers and commercial development of a crash absorbing integrated structure with an excellent crash performance for lightweight platforms applied to future eco-friendly mobility
- Development for intermediate materials of a high content (fiber volume fraction of 30 vol% or more) PA6 resin-based thermoplastic composites using carbon long fiber non-woven fabric
- Excellent basic properties: fiber volume fraction 33.2 vol%, tensile strength 27.1 GPa, tensile strength 335 MPa, and impact strength 9.2 kJ/m2 - Securing the material-modeling and crash analysis technology considering the realization of the failure mode and the crash energy absorption of thermoplastic carbon composite
- Development of analysis technique for realizing the splaying failure mode by lamina bending of the thermoplastic composites during a high-speed crash
Development of design/manufacturing/testing core technologies of radar absorbing structures
- Development of stealth technologies: intermediate materials of radar absorbing structures and prototyping technology
- Radar absorber with mechanical performance equivalent to materials certified for airborne structures.
- Prediction and measurement of radar absorbing performance utilizing free space measurement equipment
- Development of electromagnetic wave absorbing/blocking structure for 5G application