In der Forschung beschäftigen wir uns mit der Erforschung und Entwicklung smarter Materialien. Im Bereich der additiven Fertigung arbeiten wir zudem eng mit der Fraunhofer-Einrichtung für Additive Produktionstechnologien IAPT zusammen.

Unsere Forschungsschwerpunkte umfassen u.a.:

• Smarte Werkstoffe und deren Anwendungen
• Smarte Strukturen und deren Herstellung mittels AM
• Funktions- und Sensorintegration mit Hilfe von AM

Die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) fördert den Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) „SMART Reactors“! Das Institut für Industrialisierung Smarter Werkstoffe ist am Teilprojekt C01 - „Integration of components into adaptive geometries“ beteiligt, und wird sich u.a. mit der Erforschung und der additiven Fertigung selbstregulierender Strukturen befassen. Auf sich verändernde Prozessbedingungen wie z.B. Temperaturabweichungen soll dabei derart reagiert werden, dass die Reaktion wieder zu idealen Prozessbedingungen hingeführt wird. Für den 3D-Druck wird dabei eng mit dem Fraunhofer IAPT kooperiert. Nähere Informationen zur Einrichtung des SFB sind der Pressemitteilung zu entnehmen.

The project 'Integration of components into adaptive geometries' aims to develop self-optimizing lattice structures for SMART reactors with integrated components for in situ detection and self-adjustment, fabricated by additive manufacturing (AM).

Periodic Open Cell Structures (POCS) are used in process engineering for controlling and optimizing heat- and mass transfer, mixing and other properties. Due to their complex and filigree shapes, AM is the production technology of choice for these structures, as it offers outstanding design freedom. Different structures such as strut-based POCS as well as Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) each have shown their specific advantages under different conditions. Thus, a fundamental understanding of the varying effects of such structures is required. The preliminary design of the lattice structures will be determined using Computational Fluid Dynamics, and the fabricated structures will be used for experiments to determine important process parameters like pressure drop, mixing performance, resistance time distributions, bubble size distributions, and mass transfer coefficients.

Based on that, the project aims at identifying ‘ideal’ structures for the exemplary biochemical and chemical hydrogenolysis reaction of glycerol to propanediol as well as for the exothermic neutralization reaction between NaOH and HCl. The figure gives a first impression of the variety of available structures.

Furthermore, the goal is to control reactions based on reactor conditions, such as temperature, pressure drop, or pH-value, and to develop and implement self-adaptive structures. Later, components for in situ detection and self-adjustment will be integrated into the structures to optimize the surface-to-volume ratio and enhance transport processes on all relevant scales.