Colloquium announcement

Faculty of Engineering Technology

Department Dynamics Based Maintenance (MS3)
Master programme Mechanical Engineering
Report online: 109151

As part of his / her master assignment

Ruiter, T.H. de (Thomas)

will hold a speech entitled:

Towards the Characterisation and Development of Shape-Stabilised Phase-Changing materials for tunable material properties

Date12-12-2025
Time10:00
RoomHT900

Summary

This thesis explores Shape-Stabilized Phase Changing Materials (SSPCMs) for temperature-dependent tuning of stiffness and damping. While literature and a reassessment of previous work showed a proof of concept between a decrease in stiffness due to chain mobility and an increase in stiffness due to thermal wax expansion, it did not provide enough accuracy. To obtain more reliable insight, in-house SSPCMs were designed, manufactured and characterized using DMA and TMA machine. Small, well-controlled specimens allowed direct measurement of viscoelastic properties revealing clear tunable behaviour linked to the wax transition. The results demonstrate that SSPCM functionality becomes evident only under controlled testing environments.