HEMI Seminar: Seong Su Kim, “A study on the optimal curing process of tow-preg laminated composites through multi-scale computational modeling”

A study on the optimal curing process of tow-preg laminated composites through multi-scale computational modeling

Seong Su Kim
Associate Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Attend in person: Malone G33/35, JHU Homewood campus

Despite the development of composite application technologies in recent decades, the manufacturing process that greatly affects the performance of composite materials still depends on the empirical approach, and the understanding of the physical phenomena occurring during the manufacturing process is insufficient. The key in the composite material manufacturing process is to minimize the pores inside the resin by uniformly impregnating it between the fiber bundles. Since most of the previous studies analyzed the flow of resin during the process on a single scale, there was a limit to accurately predicting the effect of the process on the properties of the composite materials. In this study, through multi-scale analysis, from the fiber unit distribution to the resin flow in the composite laminate, the optimum curing cycle was suggested to reduce the pores and enhance the physical properties of the composite material.

Prof. Seong Su Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST. He has expertise in mechanical design of composite structures and improvement of energy storage systems using functional composite materials. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from KAIST in 2007, he worked for two years at KAIST as a research professor to develop a new cryogenic containment system using composite structures. He moved to the University of Tokyo in Japan in 2009 as a Global Centers of Excellence Program (GCOE) researcher and conducted research on the curing process for thermosets composites using optical fiber sensors until 2010. From 2010 to 2017, he worked as an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor of the Department of Organic Materials and Fiber Engineering at Chonbuk National University in Korea. During that time, he dedicated to the research of composite manufacturing processes to enhance the mechanical properties of thermoplastic composites. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KAIST in February, 2017.