A few years ago Euro NCAP created the five-star safety rating system to help consumers and businesses compare vehicles more easily. In fact, the number of stars is a fair and transparent picture of how safe a car really is. However, a car can meet the minimum legal demands and it is not eligible for any stars. This does not mean that this car is necessarily unsafe, but it is not as safe as its competitors.
Within what is evaluated, Euro NCAP bases its assessment on four important areas:
Adult Occupant Protection (driver and passenger);
Child Occupant Protection:
Vulnerable Road Users protection; and
Safety Assist, which evaluates driver-assistance and crash-avoidance technologies.
In this last area is where the University of Surrey, in collaboration with CIDAUT and IFEVS, have developed a simulation model which permits the emulation of the advance driver-assistance systems performance. Specifically, it is able to reproduce the performance of the ADAS features that intervene when a car-to-car rear-end crash takes place.
To avoid such crashes, one type of ADAS in the market presently is the collision avoidance system (CAS), which is design to prevent or reduce the severity of the collision. CAS can be further divided into two categories – Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Forward Collision Warning (FCW). The simulation model developed within the framework of Multi-Moby project is able to emulate the workings of these two systems and to predict the consequences of different accident scenarios. Additionally, the model can reproduce all the case that Euro NCAP takes account in determining the Safety Assist score.
The research leading to these results received funding from the European Union project MULTI-MOBY (GA# 101006953)
Automated driving is currently one of the major research topics in the automotive field, mainly motivated by the improvement of the safety [[1]]. It is supposed that automated driving will eliminate human error thank to the use of technology; however, as long as the automated vehicles continue to have to share the road with conventional cars, accidents will continue to occur. Against this background, CIDAUT together with i2CAT and CTAG have carried out a simulation model chain aimed at determining the occupant injuries after a side collision in an automated vehicle and in a complex urban environment at different speeds. To do this, it was necessary to digitally simulate both the environment where the accident takes place and the vehicle’s communications (i2CAT), as well as the autonomous car itself (CTAG). For its part, CIDAUT was responsible for determining the damage to the occupant caused by the accident.
The fact that the simulation tool focus on side collisions is principally due to the accidentology study carried out as part of the European OSCCAR project, in which CIDAUT participated. Specifically, it concluded that considering mixed traffic conditions, side impacts will continue to be common in autonomous vehicles (it is estimated that around 20% of the total).
Under that premise, the developed tool chain is able to simulate the consequences of a side impact over the occupant at different positions, and taking into account the communications with other vehicles or infrastructure. Briefly, the fact of being able to simulate V2X Communications allows us to know when the vehicle is informed about the risk of collision. In this way, we can adjust the parameters of the restraint system more realistically, taking into account that this information will allow us to deploy the airbags earlier.
This work is part of @INTEGRA project, an initiative that pursue projects and activities that respond to the major challenges of a new, safer, smarter, more sustainable, connected and automated mobility. The project, which is funded by CDTI through Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the frame of the funding for Excellence in Research Centres “Cervera”, involves the three research centres mentioned above: CTAG, CIDAUT and i2CAT, in addition to ITENE.
[1] Watzening D., Horn M. (2016) Automated driving: safer and more efficient future driving, Springer Interntional Pubishing. ISBN: 978-3-319-31893-6.
ESTELLA project has just completed its first year of work. Therefore, the consortium met last 20th and 21st June its 2nd General Assembly.
During this period we have been working on different lines: we have worked on the functionalisation of cellulose and lignin nanofibres to subsequently form epoxy resins, on the reversibility of DA lace, on the treatment of fibres with CO2 technology and on the search for new enzymes with epoxy degradation properties, among many other things.
The meeting took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Our partners from NIC (National Institute of Chemistry) hosted the meeting and showed us their facilities, laboratories and the beautiful city of Ljubljana.
We also had the opportunity to meet with the partners of another European project, PROPLANET, with whom we had an interesting discussion on the search for synergies of action.
If you would like to learn more about the project, please do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter. And finally, don’t leave without taking a look at our first promotional video:
The research leading to these results has received funding from Horizon Europe Programme under grant agreement nº 101058371.
From 13 to 15 June 2023 the XV NATIONAL COMPOSITE MATERIALS CONGRESS (MATCOMP) was held in Gijón, Asturias. Three works of the CIDAUT Foundation were presented at this well-known congress and also CIDAUT Foundation participated with the presence of a stand of the ORISIS project (CER-20211009).
CIDAUT were presented in the area of sustainability and recycling with the work “Chemical treatment of recycled carbon fibres for revalorization in new composites” showed the results of a CIDAUT-AITEX collaborative work within the OSIRIS project (CER-20211009). In this work, carbon fibres from recycled composites have been recycled by pyrolysis processes. For this purpose, sizing treatments were carried out with the aim of improving compatibility and adhesion with polymers in order to obtain new composites. And the work “Design of new sustainable polymer composites for packaging sector” showed the results of a research project whose aim was to design new formulations from bio-based and biodegradable polymers to produce foamed materials for packaging sector.
In the area of repair and joining techniques the work “Thermoplastic weld fatigue behavior analysis using structural health monitoring sensors data” showed the results of a research aimed to integrate sensors into thermoplastic welded joints for monitoring their status of health during operating conditions.
The presentation of Hydeal took place on 14 June at the Nexo Fundación Caja de Burgos building in the capital of Burgos. This project constitutes the largest integrated renewable and competitive hydrogen hub in the world, which will create a “new and clean industrial revolution”, and will be an “opportunity” for the economic development of Castilla y León. This was defined by the president of the Hydeal Ambition platform, Thierry Lepercqu, who unveiled this project at a business meeting in Burgos of the Castilla y León Hydrogen Association (H2CYL). CIDAUT, as a member of this association, had the opportunity to attend the meeting and share impressions with the attendees and the other members of the association.
Hydeal is a project that was born in Spain three years ago and is based on the generation of green hydrogen in Castilla y León for the production of green steels, fertilisers and green ammonia. During the presentation of the project, the Hydeal representative explained that this project can be used in industrial developments or in mobility, and can “feed industrial parks”, which are “smaller consumers”, but thanks to this project they can “change their processes not only in a clean way, but also in a competitive way”. He stressed that one of the most important things about hydrogen is that it is “competitive”.
The meeting, which was attended by the Director General of Economic Policy and Competitiveness of the Junta de Castilla y León, Rosa Cuesta, the Director General of Industry of the Junta de Castilla y León, Jesús Jimenez and representatives of the Regional Energy Entity and the Directorate General of Infrastructures and Environmental Sustainability, brought together more than 70 attendees from 50 different companies, both from the Region and from outside it.
The meeting took the opportunity to host the first meeting of the associates of the Castilla y León Hydrogen Association (H2CYL), including CIDAUT. This meeting aimed to “promote consumption generation projects and technological development in the field of renewable hydrogen”, as explained by its president, Rafael Barbero.
The Automotive Cluster of Castilla y León, FaCyL, as part of the activities programmed by the Think Tank ‘Retos de Futuro de la Automoción de Castilla y León’ of the sectorial brand Polo de la Automoción, brought together around twenty experts on June 8. The objective was to share knowledge and develop a strategic vision on the roadmap for the sustainability of this ecosystem on the occasion of the celebration of Environment Day. This collaborative activity seeks to draw a strategic path for companies in the community in this area.
CIDAUT’s participation, led by José Ignacio Domínguez, from the Energy and Environment area, provided the vision of a technology centre with extensive experience in the automotive sector. Sustainability is one of the key lines of research, both from the point of view of the circular economy of the materials used, and from the perspective of efficiency and zero emissions from the propulsion systems of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cells vehicles. This activity provided an insight into how automotive companies in the autonomous community are facing the challenges involved in adapting to the manufacturing process of new vehicle models that are more environmentally friendly. In addition, the dynamic has also made it possible to exchange experiences on how companies see the new mobility and what actions can be developed to achieve a better understanding between all the actors involved in this challenge.
Last June CIDAUT had the opportunity to participate in several events around H2 at European and national level.
The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Community and the ETSI de Minas y Energía of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid organised the Hydrogen Storage Conference on 6 June in the auditorium of the ETSI de Minas y Energía to find out which technologies are being used in industry and which are being worked on in research centres to implement them in the near future.
After the official inauguration by the Rector of the UPM, the Director General of Energy Policy and Mines of MITERD and the President of Hydrogen Europe Research, the day was organised into two round tables. The first aimed to offer a more business-oriented view of current hydrogen storage technologies with the participation of representatives from Naturgy, Navantia, Airburs, Aciturri and Enagas. The second round table focused on Innovation in hydrogen storage. At this round table there were interventions by representatives of the CSIC, CIEMAT, the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation and the ETSI of Mines and Energy of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Continuing with the hydrogen events in Madrid, the following day the Hydrogen Europe Research (HER) General Assembly took place at the ETSII School of Industrial Engineering of the UPM. The meeting took place in a hybrid format, both online and in person, and was attended by more than 123 organisations from 29 countries across Europe. During the General Assembly, Hydrogen Europe Research provided an update on the activities of the Board of Directors, welcomed 23 new members, promoted its communication, policy and competence activities and presented the latest developments of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. Luigi Crema, as chairman of HER, anticipated some future projects, such as the launch of a Working Group on Low TRL Research, and a Working Group on Research and Technology Infrastructures. CIDAUT attended in person and had the opportunity to exchange views and greet members in person.
Finally, and continuing with events organised by HER, CIDAUT presented part of its activity in the framework of H2 transport at the “Meet our members” event on H2 carriers, showing our projects and capabilities. This session took place on 31 May and was attended by many members of the association’s research community.
CIDAUT, together with the partners of Salient Project, is tackling the new challenges of the forthcoming connected and automated vehicles’ crashworthiness. The new skills of the connected and automated vehicles will allow to significantly reduce the number of accidents and fatalities in our roads, but the zero crashes scenario is still far away. In the meanwhile, the communication among vehicles, V2V technology, will be a useful tool to have some pieces of important information some milliseconds in advance of the crash event.
This information will allow the absorption elements of the vehicle to give an active response to the impact they are about to suffer. But to obtain this active response, a deep research and development work is needed in order to select the right material and the optimum geometry for each of the components that shape the structure of the vehicle.
At the same time, the project aims to find a sustainable solution, and attending to this is looking for recyclable light materials, as composite, aluminum or the combination of both, taking into account the whole life cycle analysis of the components and looking for circular economy compliant solutions. In order to select the most suitable material a detailed characterization campaign of different grades of composite and aluminum is being performed to know their static, dynamic, cyclic, fatigue, thermal and impact properties, which will conduct to obtaining accurate material cards to be implemented in advances software tools that will allow to optimize the geometry of the different components involved in the passive safety behavior of the automated vehicles and also to use the right material in the right position.
The research leading to this results has received funding from Horizon Europe under Grant Agreement nº 101069600
One of the most important challenges that the building sector faces is the reduction of energy consumption throughout the entire life cycle, i.e. from the manufacture of building elements, through their useful life, to their demolition. So much so that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that buildings consume approximately 40% of the world’s energy, 25% of the world’s water and 40% of the world’s resources; moreover, buildings are responsible for approximately 1/3 of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. In Europe alone, more than 220 million existing buildings – approximately 75 per cent of the building stock – are energy inefficient indeed, many of them rely on fossil fuels for heating and cooling.
In view of the construction sector is responsible for more than 35% of the EU’s total waste generation, one of the main promising measures to tackle the high CO2 emissions of this sector and move towards a more circular economy is to encourage the use of secondary materials.
Faced with this situation, the CIDAUT Foundation takes part in PROBONO project, a European project in which the implementation of the circular economy in this sector is essential. In this line, the CIDAUT Foundation is going to use recycled materials in insulation and structural applications to achieve more sustainable and efficient buildings. This will avoid the use of materials of fossil origin as well as introduce recyclable and lightweight materials.
One of the strategies for reducing the heating and cooling demands is to focus on improving the insulation properties of building envelopes, in addition to enhancing the efficiency of appliances or modifying citizen life styles. The first action plays a decisive role, as it can lead to significant improvements with a short payback period. This action is aligned with the European strategy of introducing more efficient and environmentally friendly materials. This is why the PROBONO project is working on the implementation of insulating as well as sustainable materials and processes.
A new General Assembly for the Bionanopolys (https://www.bionanopolys.eu/) was hosted by the project coordinator at 18th – 19th April 2023, in Valencia (Spain).
During this meeting, important milestones achieved so far within Bionanopolys project, were highlighted:
The official establishment of the Single Entry Point (SEP), as a new legal entity, was achieved on February ’23. SEP of the BIONANOPOLYS project has been formally constituted as international association. CIDAUT is part of this entity as founded partner together other four firms
On February ’23, the Bionanopolys Open Call was officially launched. Until 15th May, companies, universities or specialised research centre have submitted their applications via web (https://www.bionanopolys.eu/open-call/). Afterwards, an evaluation committee will score all the proposals received. From all the proposals received, a maximum of five projects will be selected, which will have free access to the BIONANOPOLYS pilot plants.
The relevance of the end user cases that are currently under development was also underlined. As a result of the upgrading and different bionanomaterials developed in BIONANOPOLYS pilot plants, eight industrial partners are currently able to bring to market 21 improved products.
Once the continues to progress towards the objective of creating a network of pilot plants dedicated to the production of nanocomposites for sectors such as automotive, packaging and textile.
The consortium of Bionanopolys met for the 2nd Executive board meeting, hosted by project coordinator, at 22nd/ 23rd March 2022. The aim of the meeting was to share the successful updates of the different WPs through the Tasks leaders within each WPs.
On the other hand, Bionanopolys network extends across Europe and intends to build up a strong community on the development of safe nano-enabled bio-based materials. From March to June 2022, the national Bionanopolys stakeholder events take place.
To analyse how companies can benefit from the development of these materials and the implementation of the other services of the project, Spanish workshop was organised on 29 March. In this event, it was shown the network of pilot plants that CIDAUT makes available to the project and to the further Open Innovation Test Bed””.
