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Marcelle-Gauvreau Engineering Research Chair in environmentally friendly composite materials

About the Chair

For many years, composites have been used in the structure of commercial aircraft and the blades of wind turbines. These materials boast exceptional properties, but there are not many solutions for recycling them, which means that these structures generally end up in landfill sites at the end of their life cycle.

The goal of the Marcelle-Gauvreau Engineering Research Chair in environmentally friendly composite materials is to address this issue by developing repair processes aimed at extending the life of existing structures and methods for recovering production waste and recycling composite materials.

Research

The work done by the Chair focuses on the following three areas :

  1. Developing manufacturing, assembly and repair processes for thermoplastic composites in order to extend the life of aeronautical structures. Among other approaches, the induction welding process will be adapted for repairing damaged structures.
  2. Developing methods for recovering production waste from the manufacture of composite materials, especially using scraps from thermoplastic composites produced during the compression moulding process.
  3. Recycling composite materials from end-of-life structures, mainly by transforming fiberglass- or carbon-based composites for reuse in other applications, such as additive manufacturing.
  • Most of the Chair’s research projects are carried out in collaboration with other universities, research centres and companies, primarily with partners from the aerospace and wind power industries, along with suppliers of composite materials.
  • The Marcelle-Gauvreau Engineering Research Chair in environmentally friendly composite materials and the Polymer and Composite Engineering Laboratory (LIPEC) comprise a team of students from all levels: interns, graduate and post-graduate students, along with post-doctoral researchers and professors.