Siebe Spronk

Ghent University has currently employed me as a PhD-student on the topic of impact damage testing and modelling of automotive composites.

I choose the ASM track because The ASM track looked like the right intellectual challenge for me, but first and foremost I enjoyed the Bachelor courses that are connected to ASM the most. This track thus seemed like the most logical choice. 3

My best experience has to be the feeling to be fully connected to a group of your classmates are you endeavour together on Christos Kassapoglou's challenging projects and finally finding the solution after hours of hard work.

Currently, on one hand, I devise new test methods and apply existing methods to test automotive composites in tension, delamination and side-impact, all at speeds of up to 15 m/s. On the other hand, I am working on an explicit finite-element model which predicts macro-scale composite impact behaviour based on meso-scale (i.e. yarns, matrix pockets and single plies) properties, which follow from my tests. At this very moment I try to get my delamination model to match my test results.

Don't be afraid of some serious work if you choose this track. But realize that the larger is the effort, the more rewarding is the success!