Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
From March 24 to 27, the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University hosted a case championship on polymer and composite materials. The event aimed to develop practical skills in working with modern materials, as well as interdisciplinary thinking at the intersection of materials science, mechanics and digital modeling.
The championship was opened by Dmitry Bogdanov, Director of the Gazpromneft-Polytech Scientific and Educational Center.
Polymers and composite materials are becoming key for a number of industries today, from aircraft manufacturing to medicine. We strive to give students not just knowledge, but engineering thinking that allows them to adequately assess the properties of materials and factor them into the calculations at the design stage, he noted.
Two teams of four people took part in the competition — 3rd and 4th year students. The theme of the championship was the development of a concept for a serial product: a light, durable and ergonomic chair designed for use in cafes and restaurants. The main condition was the use of polymer or composite materials, taking into account their physical characteristics, production limitations and aesthetic requirements.
Before starting work, the students attended a series of lectures on the physical and chemical foundations of polymers and their engineering applications. The classes were conducted by Viktor Nazarichev, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Ignatiy Abrosimov, an engineer at the Gazpromneft-Polytech Scientific and Educational Center. Particular attention was paid to numerical modeling methods in ANSYS and the principles of selecting reinforcing fillers in composite systems.
Over the course of three days, the participants worked intensively — from idea generation to strength calculations and geometry modeling. Students learned to set material parameters, analyze their behavior under load, take into account the fiber structure and the features of the binder. The focus was not only on strength characteristics, but also on the manufacturability of the structure.
The victory was won by a team of 4th-year students from the Higher School of Theoretical Mechanics and Mathematical Physics in the field of “Biomechanics and Medical Engineering”. It included Alexander Plotnikov, Stanislav Bakhmetyev, Ivan Afanasyev and Ivan Strebkov.
Working with composites requires a different engineering approach. Here you can’t rely on intuition, as when designing with traditional materials – precise parameter adjustment, anisotropy calculation, and reinforcement direction control are important. This is an interesting challenge that forces you to reconsider the very logic of design, Stanislav Bakhmetyev shared his impressions.
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