Expertise
The research group work is mainly dedicated to analysis of various effects on the polymeric materials and polymer-based composites with respect to their time-dependent mechanic behavior as well as structure, thermal, rheological, acoustic and other properties. In a broader sense these are dissipative systems which time-dependent behavior is non-linear. The research activities include characterization of wide spectrum of materials with respect to their use in wide range of applications, particularly in medicine, industry, preservation of the environment, for engineering purposes and in daily life. It should be noted that the group works a lot with newly-developed intelligent polymers in order to investigate their capabilities and bring these perspective materials into a wide practice.
The research activities are mainly carried out at the Center for Experimental Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana. The Center has a number of laboratories for materials characterization, namely:
- Laboratory of Creep characterization
- Laboratory of Rheological Characterization
- Laboratory of Microscopy and Thermal Analysis
- Numerical Laboratory
- Fiber Shrinkage Laboratory
- Polymer Extrusion Laboratory
- Acoustic Laboratory
- Laboratory of High-rate Testing (Airgun)
- Laboratory of Samples Preparation
- Laboratory of Relaxation Characterization
- Laboratory of Volumetric Bulk Measurements
- Laboratory for Ropes Testing
- Laboratory for Drop-weight Testing
The laboratories are well equipped for a wide variety of experiments. There have been developed several unique devices in the Center that allow detailed characterization of polymeric materials. At the same time several mathematical approaches and constitutive models were developed to describe the effects of temperature, pressure and humidity on the mechanical properties of polymeric materials.The work in the Center is underway on new mathematical algorithms and procedures within theory of viscoelasticity as well.
The research group is involved in scientific and industrial projects carried out with national and international partners.