Lambèrt van Breemen
Dynamic Sustainable Polymer Materials at Project Lead
Quote
Simplification of complex processes like friction and wear of polymers is key to master them in the future applications
Research profile
Lambert van Breemen is an Assistant Professor in the Polymer Technology group at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Key areas include materials technology, numerical analysis, technical mechanics and polymer technology, constitutive modeling of materials, FEM analysis of products, multi-scale modeling, contact mechanics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
Lambert’s research work currently focuses on contact mechanics and small length-scale mechanical testing in polymers as well as multi-scale analysis of intrinsic properties of polymer systems. His main field of research is contact mechanics, especially in the area where a polymer is one of the elements in contact, starting with unfilled polymers and increasing complexity by adding different types of fillers. The main goal is to obtain fundamental insight into why some polymers show a better friction and wear response.
Academic background
Lambert van Breemen obtained his MSc at TU/e, working on the 3D implementation and validation of the Leonov-model, which describes the intrinsic response of glassy polymers. Here, he also obtained his PhD, entitled “Contact mechanics in glassy polymers”, which concerns the numerical/experimental coupling of intrinsic mechanical properties to the observed frictional response in polymer glasses.
During his study in 2000, Lambert joined the board of the TU/e cultural festival Virus as Chairman. In 2003 he finished his internships, one in-house and another at the ESRF in Grenoble, both concerning the subject of semi-crystalline polymers.
Immediately after his PhD he was appointed as an assitant professor in the TU/e Polymer Technology group. During the first two years of his appointment he was sent abroad. First to the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich (ETHZ), where he joined the groups of polymer physics, chaired by professor Hans Christian Öttinger, and polymer technology, chaired by professor Paul Smith. Thereafter he went to the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and joined the computational materials science and engineering group chaired by professor Doros N. Theodorou.