Research

Research themes

The Centre for Textile Science and Engineering (CTSE) focuses on the following research themes:

• Fibre and Polymer Technology
• Material and Process Modelling
• Testing and Analysis
• Functional Textiles and Applications
• Sustainability and Society

Fibre and Polymer Technology

Fibres and their polymers are the building blocks of all textile materials and form one of the key research themes within CTSE. From ‘molecule to filament’, we focus on developing new polymers, modifying and blending existing polymers and creating new and functional fibre and filament technology for innovative solutions.

Research topics:

• Colorimetric nanofibers for sensor applications
  Built from a combination of polymers and stimuli-sensitive dyes, colorimetric nanofibrous sensors warn us against conditions that threaten our health or safety via a color change.
• Therapeutic nanofibers for drug delivery
  As over 60% of all orally taken drugs suffer from being poorly water soluble, our research shows that incorporating the drug inside nanofibers can increase the solubility tremendously.
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Material and Process Modelling

With the quest for faster and better manufacturing processes as well as high material performance, numerical modelling is becoming an important tool in the textile industry. Virtual fitting, prototyping and even testing provides new means to optimize both materials and production methods.

Research topics:

• Connecting (organo)silica sol-gel synthesis and electrospinning: pushing toward molecular scale-driven property tuning
  Combining experimental and modeling techniques leads to an improved understanding on the synthesis and properties of (organo)silica nanofibers, which increases their application potential.

• Digital twins for textile materials and processes using a new textile modelling framework
  A new textile modelling framework allows to predict the kinematic and mechanical performance of textile materials and processes using computer simulations.

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Testing and Analysis

Every textile material – be it low-end consumer goods or high-end niche products – is exploited for its performance coming from its multi-scale nature. Understanding the properties of each scale, but also how the properties propagate through these scales are thus the key to design improved textile materials.

Research topics:

• Microscale analysis of fibers, matrix and composite materials
  Micromechanical observations of both composites and their individual components show that there are important differences in behavior at the microscale and at bulk scale.

• High magnification scanning electron microscopy (SEM) during mechanical testing
  In-situ SEM enables us to observe how materials deform under loading, how damage initiates, and ultimately how the materials fail.

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Functional Textiles and Applications

Textile materials are contributing to many applications, even in areas where fibres might not immediately be expected such as in personal protective equipment, light-weight structural materials, wearable electronics or biomedical products. Optimization of the textiles for these applications, as well as development of new functional textile applications, are important goals for CTSE.

Research topics:

• Delamination and impact resistant composite materials using nanofiber toughening veils
  

  Adding tough polymer nanofibers alongside glass or carbon fibers greatly increases the damage resistance of composite materials.

• Continuous fiber reinforced Additive Manufacturing
  In-house development and characterization of Additive manufacturing technologies for the production of continuous fiber reinforced 3D printed thermoplastic composites allows for the production of intricate, small scale load bearing parts.
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Sustainability and Society

The textile sector has an important impact on the environment. At CTSE, we try to do our part and perform research into different areas of sustainability, from eco-friendly production, over recycling to educating future engineers.

Research topics:

• Thermoresponsive polymers for environmentally friendly electrospinning
  

  Thanks to their solubility in non-toxic solvents, thermoresponsive polymers help in making electrospinning a more eco-friendly production process for crosslinked or non-crosslinked nanofibers with varying affinity for aqueous media.

• The recycling of waste acrylic textiles (European H2020 project REACT)
  

  We are removing chemical finishes and colorants from waste acrylic textiles to develop a sustainable mechanical recycling process.

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Technology Transfer

Ghent University Association has a long-time experience in exploitation of research a.o. via its +25 consortia a.k.a. Business Development Centers. A center is headed by a business developer who acts as your direct point of contact for industrial partnerships, be it research, services, collaborative research or IP licensing. These centers complement research groups around a specific application area or domain of expertise. For TEX IS MORE the focus is on textile innovations for protection, comfort and care.

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Publications

• Bibliography of the department