JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013 - 19

education

Mainstreaming composites
in the university system
In the absence of natural resources, Singapore has long relied on
training people in high-potential fields. The country’s various universities have gone down the right road by becoming involved to some
extent in the field of composite materials. In parallel with these university courses, technical centres lead complementary activities.
Here, we propose to give you a survey of Singapore’s academic and
composite world.

olymer textile composites have advantages
over other materials for
high-performance and lightweight applications in many
industries such as aerospace,
automobile and energy.
Over the past few decades,
the composite manufacturing industry has turned to
process modelling in order to
reduce design and prototype
costs.

US and the Singapore
Ministry of Defence
(MINDEF) have been
engaged in active and fruitful research collaborations
since the mid-1980s. The
collaborations were mainly
on a project basis, and had
the disadvantage that at
the end of the project, the

The Mechanical Engineering
Department of the National
University of Singapore
(NUS) is very involved in the
field of composite materials,
working on research projects
led by reputed professors and
specialists, and proposing
events around composites.
In July 2012, for example, it
organized a seminar on “Multi-Scale Modelling In Textile
Composites Manufacturing And Performance”. The
seminar provided an overview of recent developments
and current activities at the

University of Nottingham in
modelling textile composite
processes and performance.
The following topics were
covered:

research team tended to
disperse. Hence, Temasek
Laboratories was established
to maintain a core research
capability in selected areas of defence science and
technology with long-term
requirements.
On 6 September, 2000,
Temasek Laboratories was
launched as a National
University of Singapore
research institute. Officiat-

ing the launch was Dr. Tony
Tan, Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister for Defence.
In his keynote address, Dr.
Tan expressed his wish for
Temasek Laboratories to
evolve into a “third pillar”
of national defence technology infrastructure, complementing DSO National
Laboratories and the local
defence industry in harnessing the potential of science

- Modelling the impregnation of fibrous reinforcement
structures with liquid resin
systems in liquid composite
moulding processes, with
particular focus on the description of local variations
of preform properties at different scales;
- Multi-scale modelling of

No80 April 2013

textile composite mechanics
with improved modelling
procedures to predict elastic
constants at the micro- and
meso-scales;
- Multi-scale modelling and
optimization of random-fibre
composite design and manufacturing. n
More information:
www.nus.edu.sg

and technology to enhance
the security and defence of
Singapore.
Temasek Laboratories also
assists the Defence Science
and Technology Agency
(DSTA) in coordinating and
promoting NUS-MINDEF
research collaborations.

/ jec composites magazine 19

http://www.nus.edu.sg

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #80 - April 2013