The Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) has welcomed Dr Juan I. Moran and Dr Ariel L. Stocchi as visiting researchers. For a total of two weeks, until the end of August, the two researchers from the Universidad Nacional Mar del Plata (UNMdP) in Argentina are visiting the TUHH Institute of Polymers and Composites. The researchers have now delivered lectures there.
Dr Ariel L. Stocchi gave a lecture on the design, manufacture and potential weak points of so-called sandwich structures – that is, multi-layered components consisting of two fibre-reinforced outer layers with a lighter core in between. New research shows that hidden damage in the core can reduce stability, and that cost-effective monitoring helps to detect this at an early stage; this is why design, manufacture and damage analysis should be considered together.
Dr Juan I. Moran – who, like his colleague Stocchi, is employed at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales – spoke in his lecture about the design and manufacture of innovative hydrogen pressure vessels. By using nanocomposites and artificial intelligence, these can be made particularly stable, safe and lightweight.
Different perspectives, the same topics
The collaboration between the TUHH and the UNMdP began several years ago with questions regarding the design of unmanned aerial vehicles for agricultural purposes, such as the targeted – and therefore more environmentally friendly – application of pesticides. “It all started with an email that Ariel and Juan sent me,” says Prof. Bodo Fiedler, Head of the Institute of Plastics and Composite Materials at the TUHH. “It quickly became clear that our two institutes were addressing the same questions, but each from a different perspective. That is precisely what makes this exchange so exciting and valuable. My sincere thanks at the TUHH go to the UNU Hub ‘Engineering to Face Climate Change’ and the CampusLab Circular Economy, which made this visit possible as part of the Global South Funding Programme. We would like to deepen our collaboration with the UNMdP and hope to do so through a DAAD grant, for which we have jointly submitted an application.”
This DAAD application is currently under review; the programme could start in mid-2027. Under the title ‘Advanced thin-ply composites for damage-tolerant lightweight structures’, researchers from the TUHH are set to visit the UNMdP and vice versa. The exchange is intended to lay the foundations for further projects, including the drafting of a Memorandum of Agreement for joint research projects.
The Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata is one of Argentina’s major state universities and is situated in the province of Buenos Aires. It was founded in 1975 and offers a wide range of subjects in fields such as engineering, natural sciences, economics, social sciences, medicine and the humanities. The UNMdP has over 50,000 students.
