James Maguire
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Lecturer in Composites
Full contact details
School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
Office D06
Royal Exchange Building
64 Garden Street
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S1 4BJ
- Profile
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I investigate how we can build the world around us in a more sustainable way using new materials and manufacturing processes.
James Maguire
Lecturer in Composites
I grew up on the border of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in County Monaghan - famous for poets, boxers, and poultry. In 2012, I graduated with a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Galway (f.k.a. NUI Galway), as well as a Diploma in Spanish — ¡Olé! In 2019, I graduated with a PhD in Materials and Processes from the University of Edinburgh. My thesis was titled, "Processing of Thick Section Epoxy Powder Composite Structures". Primarily, the thick sections I was interested in were those found in wind and tidal turbine blades, e.g., the root of the blade and spar caps. During this time, I collaborated with industry and academia, including research visits to Suzlon Energy Ltd. in the Netherlands and the University of Delaware and Purdue University in the US.
Since graduating, I have worked as a postdoctoral research associate on several projects at the University of Edinburgh, such as:- Structural testing of wind turbine blades
- Fibre-metal laminates for marine renewable energy applications
- Fire testing of carbon-fibre/acrylic composites for aerospace applications
During this time, I also took out two years to work part-time as a carer, walk the border of NI/RoI, and figure out how to have a sustainable career in academia.
I have been involved in teaching courses on materials and mechanical engineering at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, including Advance Composite Materials, and Vibrations and Control Systems. I have also co-supervised students at BEng, MEng, MSc, and PhD level - all graduated successfully and we even picked up a few awards along the way!
Recently, I've been doing more to try and spread any impact I can have, including organising outreach workshops on marine plastic waste for IntoUniversity and developing search tools for sustainability resources.
- Research interests
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The overarching aim of my work is to help build a more sustainable future for our world. Currently, my focus is on improving the sustainability of the composite materials and manufacturing processes for a broad range of applications across renewable energy, automotive, aerospace, construction, and agriculture. To achieve this, I will combine lab experiments and advanced simulations to gain a fundamental understanding of the new technologies we develop, and then optimise them for translation into real-world impact.
My current research interests include:
- Sustainable composite material development
- High-efficiency manufacturing of sustainable composite materials
- Reuse and recycling of composite materials
- Characterisation and testing related to the above
- Process simulation and experimental validation related to the above
- Publications
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Journal articles
- . Composites Part B: Engineering, 292, 112065-112065.
- . Composite Structures, 337, 118090-118090.
- . Powders, 3(2), 168-189.
- . Materials Today Communications, 37, 106961-106961.
- . Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 164.
- . Plastics, Rubber and Composites, 51(8), 383-392.
- . Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 161.
- . Applied Composite Materials, 28(6), 2061-2086.
- Wind blade demonstrator: testing of 6m hybrid glass/carbon fibre powder epoxy composite wind blade demonstrator. SAMPE Journal, 57(3), 6-14.
- . Composites Part B: Engineering, 203.
- . Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 136.
- . Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 136.
- . Materials & Design, 139, 112-121.
- . Frontiers in Medical Technology, 3.
Conference proceedings papers
- Resin characterisation for numerical modelling of through-thickness resin flow during ooa processing of thick-section wind or tidal turbine blades. ICCM International Conferences on Composite Materials, Vol. 2015-July
Preprints
- , MDPI AG.
- . Composites Part B: Engineering, 292, 112065-112065.
- Teaching interests
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- 2nd semester of GEE208 Mechanics of Structures alongside Dr. Hatice Sas.
- MEng final year project supervision
- MSc project supervision
- Academic tutor for 1st year BEng/MEng students and MSc students
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