A high-speed raindrop hitting a wind turbine blade can unleash destructive stress waves that crack the surface. LSIMPACT aims to understand exactly how these liquid-solid impacts cause damage, and then build materials that can heal themselves afterward. This matters because current materials fail unpredictably under repeated liquid impacts—whether from rain eroding turbine blades, bird strikes on aircraft, or fluid sloshing during a car crash. The fundamental physics of the collision is poorly understood, especially when materials are layered, wet, or stressed at high speeds. LSIMPACT will build new testing rigs and multiphysics computer models to watch the damage unfold in real time, then use that knowledge to design hierarchical structures—materials with internal architecture—that absorb and redirect impact energy. These structures will be infused with self-healing polymers that seal cracks when they appear, creating “life-like” materials that respond to damage. A data-driven optimisation loop will accelerate prototype development and field testing. If successful, the project could extend the lifespan of wind turbine blades, improve aircraft safety, and reduce maintenance costs for infrastructure exposed to rain or spray. The work is applied fundamental science: it solves a specific engineering problem by first understanding a basic physical process.
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The collision between a high-velocity liquid mass and a solid can generate destructive stress waves. Predicting the damage caused by liquid-solid impact (LSI) is a longstanding multidisciplinary challenge with important implications, from leading-edge erosion of wind turbine blades, and bird strikes on aircraft to traumatic brain injuries in crash events. In order to reduce the LSI damage on materials, a fundamental understanding of the liquid impact damage mechanisms, and radically new impact-resistant materials are required. LSIMPACT aims to unravel the liquid-solid impact damage mechanisms via innovative experimental and computational methods, thereby guiding the development of new impact-resistant materials. The complex phenomenon involving material heterogeneity, strain rate effect and hygrothermal environmental conditions significantly hinders the understanding of LSI damage mechanisms. LSIMPACT will overcome this barrier by developing new liquid impact testing facilities and multiphysics computational models. The fundamental understanding of LSI damage mechanisms will guide the development of impact-resistant materials with hierarchical architectures. The hierarchical structures will be further empowered with self-healing functions to create "life-like" materials that can respond to stimuli (crack or damage). Data-driven methods will be used to accelerate the prototype optimisation of life-like materials. To achieve this, LSIMPACT will: 1. Explore the liquid-solid impact damage behaviours of heterogeneous materials via new impact testers. 2. Propose new multiphysics computational models to accurately predict the liquid-solid impact behaviours of heterogeneous materials and unveil the liquid-solid impact damage mechanisms. 3. Create life-like impact-resistant materials by integrating self-healing materials and hierarchical structures. 4. Develop a data-driven framework to optimise life-like resilient materials and manufacture prototypes for field tests.
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