The goal of our Solar Team has always been to show the world the possibilities of sustainable mobility. By winning the World Solar Challenge in 2017, we proved the potential of our solar-powered family car Stella Vie but there are still plenty of other opportunities to showcase our project.I remained involved with the team in order to contribute to showcasing this potential to the world. I did this in several capacities. Some of the main tasks I have had include:- Working… Show more The goal of our Solar Team has always been to show the world the possibilities of sustainable mobility. By winning the World Solar Challenge in 2017, we proved the potential of our solar-powered family car Stella Vie but there are still plenty of other opportunities to showcase our project.I remained involved with the team in order to contribute to showcasing this potential to the world. I did this in several capacities. Some of the main tasks I have had include:- Working together with the NOS (Dutch public broadcasting) on a television production in which our solar car featured, during the King's day event in 2021. This was an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our car to a large public.- Organizing the team-side responsibilities of several (inter)national events. We brought our solar car to various exhibitions and industrial fairs. In this capacity, I worked together with business partners and public institutions to ensure that we could deliver on our promises to their requests. Highlights include managing to bring our solar car to Gran Canaria within a week after a last-minute opportunity presented itself.- Giving demonstrations, presentations and interviews. Whether it is to a room of business partner engineers, a car-magazine journalist or to a high school class, it is great to be able to share my enthusiasm about our work and to be 'challenged' by questions from such different angles.- Team manager during the European Solar Challenge in 2018. This competition, in which solar cars drive a 'Le Mans'-based 24 hour endurance race is a great possibility for us to disprove the common misconception that solar energy is not that relevant to our region. Show less

After we finished the aerodynamic shape of our car, I worked together with the structural engineers of our team. We worked with space-grade carbon fibre to make a car that only weighs 370 kg. I did a lot of CAD-work on the car, ranging from the design of the roll-cage to designing counter-sinks for the doors and wheelcovers. I also designed the CAD-files for the moulds that were sent to our partner for CNC milling. Next to this, I did strength analysis on various parts of the car. In… Show more After we finished the aerodynamic shape of our car, I worked together with the structural engineers of our team. We worked with space-grade carbon fibre to make a car that only weighs 370 kg. I did a lot of CAD-work on the car, ranging from the design of the roll-cage to designing counter-sinks for the doors and wheelcovers. I also designed the CAD-files for the moulds that were sent to our partner for CNC milling. Next to this, I did strength analysis on various parts of the car. In this process I learned the power of composites and the way you can arrange lay-ups to achieve the best results. During this process I learned the importance of Design for Manufacturing. We had to make sure that everything could be manufactured and that the resulting components would fit together.Afterwards, I was a part of the production team that made the monocoque of the car by hand.We received the paste- and MDF-moulds from our milling partner and finished them by sanding them and coating them with sealant and release agents. We used pre-preg carbon and honey-comb core material to build most of the car. We finished the chassis by assembling all of the components with wet lay-up carbon. Experiencing all different stages in the production of a composites-based product was highly informative. Show less

Our team has build Stella Vie, a five-seater that runs solely on solar power and became World Champion in the 2017 World Solar Challenge Cruiser Class by being the most energy-efficient solar-powered family car to cross the Australian continent (3000km). Stella Vie is energy-positive which means that it's solar cells collect more energy than the car requires to drive. Stella Vie's range is 1000km per day in good weather and around 640 km at night. The goal of our team is to inspire society… Show more Our team has build Stella Vie, a five-seater that runs solely on solar power and became World Champion in the 2017 World Solar Challenge Cruiser Class by being the most energy-efficient solar-powered family car to cross the Australian continent (3000km). Stella Vie is energy-positive which means that it's solar cells collect more energy than the car requires to drive. Stella Vie's range is 1000km per day in good weather and around 640 km at night. The goal of our team is to inspire society and industry with the possibilities of sustainable technology.One of my main tasks in the team was aerodynamics. The aerodynamics team was responsible for the aerodynamically efficient shape of the car which is one of the reasons our car is so efficient.Most of the aerodynamic work was done in Siemens NX (CAD) and in Ansys (CFD). Show less

I did my graduation project for BMW, who are developing a fuel cell electrive vehicle (FCEV), also known as a "hydrogen car". The hydrogen is stored in pressure vessels that is over-wrapped with composites, of which the material behavior has to be well-understood.For my thesis, I focused on the failure mechanism of fiber kinking, which is prevalent under fiber compression. By simulating the behavior on a microscopic level, I identified the initiation of fiber kinking, how it develops… Show more I did my graduation project for BMW, who are developing a fuel cell electrive vehicle (FCEV), also known as a "hydrogen car". The hydrogen is stored in pressure vessels that is over-wrapped with composites, of which the material behavior has to be well-understood.For my thesis, I focused on the failure mechanism of fiber kinking, which is prevalent under fiber compression. By simulating the behavior on a microscopic level, I identified the initiation of fiber kinking, how it develops and ultimately how and when it leads to material failure. Then, I analyzed the effect of several parameters on this behavior. In my thesis, "Predicting the residual strength in carbon reinforced plastics after fiber kinking", I explained my findings and gave recommendations.For my graduation projectPredicting the residualstrength in carbonreinforced plastics afterfiber kinking Show less

For my internship at the Technical University of Madrid, I worked on a project concerned with ultra-sonic testing, which is often used to detect imperfections in carbon fiber reinforced polymers. In Madrid, they are working on a way to use ultra-sound data to more accurately predict imperfections in a non-destructive manner.I developed a Python program that uses the finite element analysis (FEA) software package Abaqus to simulate ultrasound-waves traveling through carbon fiber… Show more For my internship at the Technical University of Madrid, I worked on a project concerned with ultra-sonic testing, which is often used to detect imperfections in carbon fiber reinforced polymers. In Madrid, they are working on a way to use ultra-sound data to more accurately predict imperfections in a non-destructive manner.I developed a Python program that uses the finite element analysis (FEA) software package Abaqus to simulate ultrasound-waves traveling through carbon fiber reinforced polymers containing varying imperfections. My program takes the location and shape of the imperfection as input, passes it through the simulation and produces the simulated ultra-sound response. A large batch of data was collected this way for varying imperfections, which was then used to train a neural network to recognize the position and size of other imperfections. This model, based on numerical results, will serve as a tool to set benchmarks for future experimental results (what is a reasonable accuracy, how many data points are needed, etc). Show less