Armoured land vehicles are ballistic and blast protected (mines threats or Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs). For blast protection, protection is mainly insured with metallic reinforced structure. This concept has been combat proven. However, payload of vehicles has been reduced with this kind of solutions and light vehicles cannot use such heavy solutions. Therefore, for weight issue or in order to increase protection level, composite material used as up-armouring of the vehicle can prove to be an innovative solution and allow the weight reduction in the overall armouring solution. Thus in the BLAST3D+ project, different configurations of material combinations (composite or others) will be submitted to blast to understand their dynamic behaviour. Fibrous reinforcement used in composite material will be made with multi-layers textile structures with different multi-directional orientations of yarns. Blast has different behaviour if it is used in open field (essentially representing IED types of threat) or buried mine, material responses will be evaluated and compared in both cases. Based on the blast phenomenon analysis, different composite-metallic hybrid architectures will be designed, produced and tested at low value of the explosive charge, to compare the solutions, and at high value of the explosive charge to identify the optimal protection solution. A law of behaviour of the metallic/composite structure submitted to blast will be so determined for blast threat.

In France, the building sector is the most energy consuming sector (43% of total energy), with 65% of this part directly linked to HVAC systems. The POCOMA project aims at reducing this energy consumption by shifting the problem of thermal comfort from the building scale to the level of the person through the design of heating or cooling textile. We propose to design polymer membranes that modify the mid-IR properties of the textile to which they are attached, hence acting on the main heat transfer mechanism of the human body at rest. In this context, we will study two different structures, which can also be coupled: polymer membranes loaded with nano or even micro particles and membranes structured with photonic crystals at mid-IR wavelengths. The consortium already has expertise in this field, so, rather than the proof of principle that has already been carried out previously, we are aiming to obtain demonstrators with a TRL5 compatible with the application (materials, size and process). The presence of the DAMART company, which is well known in the field, grants that the specific constraints linked to clothing application and industrial production will be considered at each stage of this project. POCOMA is composed of four parts: modelling of the membranes, fabrication at laboratory scale and characterization of membranes properties, but also an industrialization aspect with research into textile functionalization and structuration processes compatible with the industrial scale. Mid-IR optical and thermal behaviour of the membrane will be predicted by their simulation, as a function of their microstructure and/or charge loading. Models established in previous work will be used here but will be enhanced and pushed towards new possibilities, such as increasing the size of the nanoparticles beyond the micron, thus approaching the wavelength of interest, or taking into account the effect of humidity on the optical and thermal properties. Dealing the manufacturing part, the main challenge is to use processes that can be industrialised afterwards. Thus "layer by layer" deposition process for charged membranes and "hot embossing" process for microstructured membranes will be mainly focused here. However, other solutions allowing the rapid production of samples will also be used. In addition, electrospinning will also be studied as a way of to combine the two strategies to produced microstructured-particles loaded-membranes. The characterisation aspect will be organised on the one hand around the determination of the characteristics (optical complex index) of the materials in the mid-infrared, a little-explored field that is nevertheless necessary for the simulation of our structures. On the other hand, the membranes and membrane/textile complexes fabricated will also be qualified with regard to their optical and thermal properties and the results of these characterizations will be compared with simulation. In order to be able to qualitatively characterize small samples produced in the laboratory, the development of a thermal characterization set-up with enhanced performance (sensitivity) will be undertaken in the framework of this project. Finally, the transition to sizes sample and structures compatible with standardised tests will be addressed. The functionalization of textiles by microstructured membranes will be carried out either by lamination on textiles of already structured membranes, or by polymer-coating on textile followed by plate to late or roll to roll hot embossing. This later is more compatible with the textile industry. DAMART will then qualify the product demonstrators in terms of thermal efficiency, comfort and resistance to use.

The ambition of the PROPTITEX project is to create fabrics capable of locally and controllably changing color. This ambition is based on the results of the initial project consisting of the integration "into textiles," directly onto the filament/textile fiber/thread of electrochromic (EC) compounds, allowing EC textile threads to change color in a controlled manner. The objectives of the PROPTITEX project are: 1. Design and realization of an EC textile thread using REACH-compatible products; 2. Implementation of a textile structure (knitted, woven, or embroidered) using the EC thread; 3. Design and realization of the EC connection of the EC textile structure based on its architecture (20 x 20 cm2); 4. Evaluation of the performance and durability of EC structures for civilian and military applications; and 5. Life cycle analysis, circular economy, and recycling of EC structures. The PROPTITEX project addresses both military and civilian challenges. In the military sector, as indicated in the initial project conducted by the LPPI laboratory, the development of adaptive optical systems for camouflage and stealth technology in military equipment has become a major issue to protect soldiers and equipment in combat theaters. Among the technologies developed, electrochromic materials are particularly interesting in the visible domain. The security, economic, and societal stakes in the event of conflicts are evident. In the civilian sector, the possibility of developing threads, which are the basic elements of fabrics capable of changing color, could open up a new and very promising field of application for fashion designers involved in the luxury and fashion industry. The potential to partially integrate color-changing design elements in luxury bags or within clothing could increase the value of these products and allow the French fashion and luxury industry to differentiate itself from its global competitors. Moreover, the development of EC threads capable of changing color will rely on materials that comply with the European REACH regulation (Regulation No. 1907/2006), which came into effect in 2007 to secure the manufacture and use of chemical substances in the European industry. Environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the developed EC materials and components will be addressed through the implementation of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The LCA study will follow the ISO 14040/14044 and ILCD Handbook guidelines and will include the following stages: definition of objectives and scope, life cycle inventory (LCI) based on data on the inputs and outputs of the system (which will be provided by LPPI), life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), and interpretation. The environmental impact is quantified in impact categories, which are included in several methods (e.g., Eco-Indicator99). Environmental impact categories to be analyzed include climate change, depletion of the ozone layer, ecotoxicity, human toxicity, resource use, and depletion, and cumulative energy demand, among others. The LCA analysis will enable a comparative study of the potential environmental impacts of different EC thread and structure manufacturing solutions (technology, raw materials, process energy consumption).

Face to the economic and social problems caused by manufacturing relocation to low-cost countries, European textile industry wishes to enhance control of its current international supply chain. For this purpose, development of a traceability platform with coded smart textile-based tags enabling to monitor technical, ecological and social parameters of all concerned products and their environments will be significant for managing product quality, risks, counterfeiting and environmental impacts. Based on the results of SMDTex (funded by EU Erasmus Mundus Program from 2013 to 2021), TRACETEX aims to create a joint international doctorate program integrating top-level textile universities around the textile supply chain, distributed in Europe and Asia. Its overall objective is to jointly develop a traceability platform for online monitoring of the international supply chain by using a series of coded smart materials (tags) integrated into textiles. Two AI university partners will also participate in the project for mining big data extracted from connected smart materials. Two industrial partners with experiences on the textile international supply chain will be involved for real data providing, student training and validation of the final results. This doctorate program will enable to combine research results on smart materials and artificial intelligence and make interactions between them in order to develop a series of smart material-based intelligent systems (Cyber Materials), so that sensing and actuation functionalities of materials and reasoning and data mining capacity of AI software can be integrated into fabrics to track technical, ecological and social parameters of the product during its lifecycle. Also, the sustainability of new cyber materials will be extensively studied in order to find optimized design solutions for minimizing environmental impacts and economic costs, and enhance traceability on the whole supply chain. In this multidisciplinary doctorate program, doctorate candidates will be recruited according to the content of various projects from the following disciplines: textile, design, material engineering, chemistry, electronics, management, industrial engineering, information technology. In general, the TRACETEX research projects will be defined around one of the following themes: 1) Smart material design: Design of coded smart materials (tags) fully integrated into textiles, permitting to uniquely identify textile products at different stages and acquire related data. 2) AI algorithms development: Realization of AI-based algorithms enabling to make online decisions on product quality, risks, counterfeiting and environmental and social impacts from data continuously measured from the textile product during its whole lifecycle. 3) Cyber material development: Connection of smart materials to product-oriented AI algorithms in order to continuously track product technical, ecological and social parameters during its lifecycle. 4) Green cyber material Design: Determination of new design solutions of smart materials in order to minimize environmental impacts and economic costs by considering recycling and waste disposal of used materials and integrated devices. 5) Sustainable textile supply chain development: Optimization of the international textile supply chain by integrating the developed cyber materials into products, implementing the final traceability platform for tracking activities of involved partners (production, design, transaction, etc.) and developing relevant business models. The TRACETEX doctorate program is composed of three mobility periods: two in European universities and another in an Asian university. Each mobility period will last for one or one and half year according to the specific academic requirements of involved universities. The involved partners generally represent the leading research level of Europe and Asia in the areas of smart materials and artificial intelligence.

The objective of the SSUCHY project is to develop and optimise components based on plant fibres for manufacturing structural and multifunctional biocomposites. The project is fully integrated into the research program of the Bio-Based Industries (BBI) Joint Technology Initiatives operating under Horizon 2020, and particularly focused on BBI Value Chains 1 which is dedicated partly to the transformation of lignocellulosic feedstock to advanced bio-based materials. The project aims at exploiting the intrinsic and differentiating properties of plant fibres to develop and enhance the functionalities of bio-based composites and thus to diversify their applicative sectors. The intended application areas are transportation, civil engineering (structural parts), biomedical engineering (materials for biomedical devices), sport and nautical-leisure products. Enhanced functionalities are, in addition to load-bearing resistance and weight reduction of structures, vibration damping, multi-scale shape forming and material health monitoring based on self-sensing. Such developments would provide to the composite industry a significant value and functions added products with high socio-economic impacts and minimized environmental impact. The proposed methodology will be implemented within the framework of a multi-level eco-efficiency issue which covers experimental aspects, process optimisation, modelling and design. To raise the multi-disciplinary and multi-scale fundamental and technological barriers, mounting an ambitious and innovative project with a consortium aggregating very wide ranging skills on one hand and academics, SMEs and industries on the other hand is necessary.