Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Abstracts 2002-2003

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Monday, June 9, 2003
2:00 p.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor Charles R. Steele
Mechanics and
Computation
Stanford University


“Recent Progress Toward Understanding Hearing”

Three topics will be summarized.

 

(1) The function of the eardrum and middle ear is to resolve the acoustic impedance mismatch between the air of the outside world and the fluid of the inner ear. Without an impedance matching device, very little acoustic energy would be absorbed by the inner ear and hearing would be severely limited. Although the role of the middle ear is clear, it was a mystery how the eardrum accomplishes this task over the audible frequency range. In the present work, a computer simulation of the cat eardrum was constructed. For the first time, the vibrations of the eardrum were fully coupled to the acoustics of the ear canal and the dynamics of the middle ear bones.

 

(2) A remarkable feature is the feed back of energy in the inner ear, due to piezoelectric behavior of the outer hair cells. This however saturates, which causes the generation of nonlinear distortions, consisting of harmonics and combination tones. A model for the distributed sensors and actuators as a simple "feed-forward" mechanism, does rather well in representing the effect.

 

(3) The specific fluid excitation of the primary receptors, the inner hair cells, is investigated with a Fast4 simulation of the details of anatomy of the cochlea.

 

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Tuesday, June 3, 2003
2:15 p.m.
479 EBU-II

Michael Paukshto, Ph.D.
Optiva, Inc.
South San Francisco, CA

“Cascade Crystallization of Nano-Film Optical Materials”

Optiva Inc. is a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced self-assembling materials for use in a wide range of optical applications. Benefiting from over two decades of successful large-scale research in supramolecular engineering, Optiva is the first to deliver a commercial mass-production process for optical nanomaterials. These materials are designed to self-assemble into liquid crystals in solution and then self-align into very thin crystalline films (TCF) when coated onto surfaces. Optiva's first family of TCF products is targeted at the flat panel display industry, offering significant cost and performance advantages over traditional optical film alternatives. It won the 2002 SID/Information Display Magazine Display Material or Component of the Year, Gold Award, for its Optiva Thin Crystal Film (TCF™) Polarizer. The Society of Information Display (SID), the largest international professional organization for the display industry, announced the award in the December issue of Information Display Magazine. Other category winners included, Dupont, Eastman Kodak, Samsung and Sony.

 

This presentation will provide an overview of TCF technology and will describe a new crystallization process as well as material structure, and associated coating equipment.

 

The materials are based on polycyclic aromatic compounds. Chemical modification of compounds changes hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance of disk-shaped molecules and makes them water-soluble with aggregation into rod-like supramolecules in aqueous solution and subsequent formation of supramolecular lyomesophases. Coating techniques provide control of crystallographic axes direction of the final crystal film. Shear force that is applied during deposition controls alignment of supramolecules. Structure of liquid material, wet coating and resulting 100-700 nm thin solid crystal films has been studied optically and by X-ray diffraction.

 

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Monday, June 2, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

ProfessorJoanna McKittrick
Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering
University
of California, San Diego

“Surface Studies of Titanium for Implant Applications”

Titanium has been successfully used for decades in dental and orthopedic implants, but the exact mechanism of successful osseointegration and biocompatibility has not been determined.  The hypothesis is that the biocompatibility of titanium involves an interaction between the surface layer of titanium dioxide on the metal implant and reactive oxygen mediators of the inflammatory response in model systems with varying degrees of complexity.  Different forms of surface oxide can exist on titanium, and the relationship between defined surface oxides and anti-inflammatory response will be discussed. We recently demonstrated that peroxynitrite, a highly reactive compound and inflammatory mediator produced in vivo by the reaction of the free radicals nitric oxide and superoxide, is significantly degraded by the presence of titanium oxides.  Furthermore, there appears to be a strong correlation between the ability to degrade peroxynitrite and ultimate in vivo biocompatibility.  The long-term goal is to extend the knowledge gained from the titanium studies to develop new biocompatible materials with superior mechanical and material properties than that of titanium.

 

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Monday, May 19, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Luke L. Hsiung
Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory
Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate
Livermore, CA 94551-9900

“A DYNAMIC DISLOCATION MECHANISM FOR SHOCK-INDUCED DISPLACIVE TRANSFORMATIONS “

The occurrence of displacive transformations in tantalum [which has bcc structure and exhibits no phase transformation under ambient and static pressures (up to 100 GPa)] induced by high strain-rate shock deformation has been investigated.  While deformation twinning of {112}<111>-type was found to occur when shocked at 15 GPa, a shock-induced martensitic transformation was discovered when shocked at 45 GPa.  The martensite phase has a hexagonal structure and the lattice parameters are ah » 0.468 nm and ch » 0.286 nm (ch/ah = 0.611).  The orientation relationships between the martensite and parent phases are determined to be {10-10}h||{211}b, [0001] h||<111>b and <1-210>h||<0-11>b.  Since both deformation twinning and martensitic transformation occurred in the {211}b planes associated with high resolved shear stresses, it is suggested that both processes can be regarded as alternative paths for the displacive transformations occurred in shocked tantalum.  While deformation twinning occurs as a result of a/6<1-1-1> homogeneous shear in consecutive {211} planes, the occurrence of martensitic transformation is attributed to the a/12<1-1-1>, a/3<1-1-1>, and a/12<1-1-1> inhomogeneous shear in consecutive {211} planes.  Critical stresses for the formation of shock-induced twinning and martensitic transformation are accordingly estimated according to a dynamic dislocation mechanism.  The occurrence of similar displacive transformations within a shocked actinide alloy and the effect of shock-induced displacive transformations on dynamic fracture will also be discussed. 

 

 

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Monday, May 12, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

H. Thomas Hahn
Raytheon Professor and
Chair
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department
University
of California, Los Angeles

“Polymer Nanocomposites

 

Because of their small size, nano-scale reinforcements are a much better choice than their micro-scale counterparts in improving composite properties.  Such improvements are believed to be the combined result of benign stress distribution and synergistic interfacial interactions that are possible in the nanometer range. 

 

Currently, a wide variety of nanoreinforcements are available and still more are coming into the market as the nanotechnology progresses.  Nanoparticles, being 0-dimensional, do not have an efficient reinforcement morphology but can be used to add other functionalities as functional materials are readily available in particulate rather than bulk form.  An extensive research effort is under way to explore the potential of short carbon nanotubes as a 1-dimensional reinforcement phase because continuous carbon nanotubes are still a long way to go.  Silicate clay nanoplatelets are already finding their use in engineering plastics as a cost-effective 2-dimensional reinforcement phase. 

 

The present talk reviews the state of the art of nanocomposites, and discusses the potential of using graphite nanoplatelets (GNPs) as a new reinforcement phase. Being 2-dimensional, GNPs provide better reinforcement efficiency than 1-dimensional carbon nanotubes do.  Unfortunately, however, the currently available GNPs are too thick to provide optimum reinforcement.  Methods of synthesizing GNPs a few nanometers thick through intercalation, exfoliation and delamination will be discussed in the talk.

 

 

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Monday, April 21, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor Marc Madou
Chancellor Professor, UC Irvine
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of California, Irvine

“Nanotechnology: Icarus Revisited  ?”

 

The combination of natural polymers such as proteins and nucleic acids with MEMS and NEMS promises the advent of a totally new class of devices such as sensors and actuators with applications in diagnostics, responsive drug delivery, biocompatibility, self assembly etc. Proteins and nucleic acid are information rich molecules with structural and electrical properties making their incorporation in the human manufacturing arsenal an attractive proposition. This combination has become possible as today both top-down traditional manufacturing (e.g., MEMS and NEMS) and novel bottom-up manufacturing can realize components overlapping in size. Examples to illustrate the tremendous potential of merging top-down and bottom-up manufacturing techniques will be presented. These examples are culled from the fields of molecular diagnostics, responsive drug delivery systems, protein and DNA structural elements and sensors and actuators and molecular self-assembly. In molecular diagnostics we conclude that an important avenue to success is the merging of DNA arrays with microfluidics to achieve sample to answer systems. Future responsive drug delivery systems are seen as a culmination of results from genomics and proteomics coupled with implantable telemetric devices. This and other developments will cause a renewed interest in in-vivo diagnostics. Natural polymers will become part of our manufacturing arsenal and when using building blocs in the nanometer range a fundamental understanding and the use of molecular self assembly is a must for future progress. While biomimetics in the macro domain often has led to failure in the past (airplanes do not flap their wings as birds do, see Icarus legend), we believe that biomimetics in the nanodomain will succeed. Nature indeed has worked much longer on arriving at a biological cell than it did at making birds, trees or humans:  nature excels at engineering in the nanodomain. While top-down manufacturing approaches will continue to prevail over the next two decades we will start seeing hybrid solutions, such as the use of flexible materials (e.g., hydrogels) rather than stiff building materials (e.g., steel and Si). There will be more emphasis on non-Si, modular and “beyond batch” techniques such as pick and place, drop delivery, lamination, etc. The next big breakthrough will be continuous manufacturing, perhaps rendered possible through molecular self-assembly (continuous fabrication rather than batch fabrication!).

 

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Monday, April 14, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor T. I. Zohdi
Department of
Mechanical Engineering
University
of California, Berkeley

“Nonstandard inverse problems in micro-macro mechanics”

The focus of this work is to highlight some nonstandard inverse problems in micro-macro mechanics.  Three objectives are addressed:

 

1) To design materials composed of randomly dispersed particulates suspended in a homogeneous binding matrix, where the objectives are to deliver prescribed macroscopic effective responses while simultaneously obeying  local constraints that reflect the distortion of the microscale stress fields, as well as  the likelihood  for fatigue damage,

2) To design ``swarming fluid materials'', where the overall goal is to design autonomous self-correcting particulate groups whose goal is to reach a target, possibly   ``guarded'' by obstacles, in a minimum amount of time and

3) To determine the ambient conditions under which flowing grains of interstellar dust in a gaseous, hydrogen-rich, atmosphere, can fuse, due to the high strain rates during binary particle impacts, coupled with thermochemical reactions.

 

All of the mentioned are treated with a general nonconvex optimization strategy, based on a nonderivative statistical genetic algorithm.

 

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Monday, April 7, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Otis Walton
Grainflow Dynamics
Livermore, California

“Effects of interparticle forces on micron-scale pulmonary pharmaceutical powders”

Dry pulmonary powders are an attractive alternative to injections for systemic delivery of macro-molecules, proteins and peptides.  Increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are also considering local pulmonary delivery of powders or aerosols for small molecules, anti-infectives or antibiotics, in order to increase the local concentration of the therapeutic substance while reducing potential systemic load.  As particle size is reduced, the effects of surface forces can dominate the bulk powder behavior.  Yet, dispersiblility and degree-of-agglomeration in aerosols appear to improve with decreasing particle size in these powders.  Explanations of such counter-intuitive results, and a discussion of the sensitivity of fine powders to handling will be presented.

 

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Monday, March 10, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Tim Wright
Army Research Laboratory

"COMPUTATIONAL SOLID MECHANICS FOR IMPACT PHYSICS:  MODELING DAMAGE FOR SHEAR BANDS AND VOIDS"

            Computational solid mechanics (CSM) for impact situations, as it exists today, does not have predictive capabilities that are comparable to those of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The most important reason for this is the lack of high quality physical models for the damage and failure processes that occur during high speed impact. Because these processes are expected, they must be part of design and optimization.

An approach for modeling impact damage in metals, based on physical modeling of adiabatic shear bands and void growth, will be presented. Scaling laws for damage from adiabatic shear bands have been developed over the past decade following detailed examination of the thermomechanical processes (1). Recently these laws have been adapted for efficient use in large scale computations and show great promise for capturing the essential aspects of diverse experiments ranging from laboratory scale to full scale impacts (2). A similar approach for ductile void growth and spall has also been initiated (3). A careful analysis of these physical processes has revealed many new and interesting features, which we hope to capture for large scale computations through scaling laws, as well.

This approach is expected to lead to damage and failure models that are based on the essence of the physics, rather than on fitting of phenomenological models to large data bases. An added virtue is that it tends to place a premium on accurate measurement and modeling of homogeneous processes, rather than on failure as a separate phenomenon. Finally, the approach also has implications for design and interpretation of experiments.

 

1.     Wright TW (2002). The physics and mathematics of adiabatic shear bands. Cambridge Monographs on Mechanics: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

 

2.     Schoenfeld SE and Wright TW. A failure criterion based on material instability. To appear (2003) in International Journal of Solids and Structures.

 

3.     Wu XY, Ramesh KT, and Wright TW. The dynamic growth of a single void in a viscoplastic material under transient hydrostatic loading. Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 51 (2003) 1-26.

 

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Monday, February 24, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor Panayiotis Papadopoulos
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley

"Experiments and Modeling of the Superelastic Effect in Shape-Memory Alloys"

This work concerns a combined experimental, theoretical and computational study of the superelastic alloys under multiaxial loading conditions. The experimental component involves a series of tension-torsion tests on thin-walled polycrystalline Nitinol tubes. A multivariant constitutive model is formulated in finite deformations and incorporates the effect of texture. The numerical implementation is based on the constrained minimization of the Helmholtz free energy with dissipation. Finite element-based simulations are conducted for thin tubes of Nitinol under tension-torsion, as well as for a simplified model of a biomedical stent.

 

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Thursday, February 13, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Peter Lomdahl
Theoretical Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory

"Large-scale Parallel Simulations of Phase-transitions in Metals"

 

Recent advances in computing technology has allowed direct simulations at the classical level of the the response of materials to shockwave loading and unloading.  In dense monatomic, chemically unreactive fluids, the profile or structure of a shock wave is rather boring, being well described by viscous flow.  In solids, on the other hand, the structure is far more complex, being dominated by plastic flow mechanisms as well as phase transformations.  At Los Alamos National Laboratory we have developed a high performance parallel MD code (SPaSM) which has been designed to perform very large scale simulations with 10^8-10^9 atoms. I will discuss some of the recent advances we have made in simulations of shock waves and related phenomena, including plastic deformation, phase-transitions, and fragmentation.  As experimental observations become more and more refined, and molecular-dynamics simulations become larger, even approaching the mesoscale, fruitful overlap is achievable in the near future.

 

Peter Lomdahl is the Deputy Group Leader of the Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  He has conducted research at Los Alamos for over 20 years in areas of nonlinear physics, parallel computing and materials science. Lomdahl got a MSc in EE and a PhD in Applied Physics from the Technical University of Denmark. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

 

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Monday, February 10, 2003
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Dr. Peter G. Simpkins
Syracuse University
, New York


"Fluid mechanics and optical fiber defects"

 

Two experiments involving optical fibers, both of which occur at relatively high speeds, will be discussed.  In the first experiment I will describe how air becomes entrapped into a coating via an extensional shear flow process that culminates in phenomenon known as tip streaming.  Optical microscopy of the dynamic air-coating interface at framing rates of 500 per sec. reveal details of the entrainment process hitherto unknown.  Methods for preventing the entrapment occurring will also be briefly described.

 

The second experiment concerns an event known colloquially as a fiber fuse.  These events occur when fiber transmitting power densities greater than about 1 MW/cm2 are in some way physically abused. The result is a brilliant, highly visible, plasma-like disturbance that propagates toward the optical source at speeds of order 1 m.sec.-1 leaving in its wake a trail of voids.  I will show that, as in the analogous electrical fuse, the resultant damage is a manifestation of a capillarity driven Rayleigh instability.  Estimates for the fuse propagation speed and the local thermal field will be compared with observations. 

Dr. Peter Simpkins did his undergraduate work in aeronautical engineering at London University.  He also holds an MS from California Institute of Technology and a diploma (DIC) together with a Ph.D. in aeronautics from Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.   Dr. Simpkins was a member of the technical staff in the physical science and engineering division at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ for more than 30years.  In 1974 he was a Senior Research Fellow at Southampton University, England.  He was named a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs in 1983, a Fellow of the ASME in 1993, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1999.  Last year he accepted the appointment of University Professor at Syracuse University, NY.  Dr. Simpkins has more than 70 publications and he holds nine U.S. patents.


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Thursday, February 6, 2003
3:00 p.m.
479 EBU-II

Ted Belytschko
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Northwestern University

"Arbitrary discontinuities and level sets in finite elements methods"

 

A technique for modeling arbitrary discontinuities in finite elements is presented.  Both discontinuities in the function and its derivatives are considered.  Methods for intersecting and branching discontinuities are given.  Discontinuities in functions are applicable to phenomena such as cracks, shear bands, and shocks in compressible flow.  Discontinuities in derivatives of functions are needed when the element edges do not coincide with interfaces between material or between different phases in fluid flow.  The discontinuous approximation is constructed in terms of a signed distance functions, so level sets can be used to update the position of the discontinuities.  A standard displacement Galerkin method is used for developing the discrete equations. For the special case of cracks, the geometry is defined by two sets of orthogonal level set functions or by vector level sets. The following applications are given: three dimensional crack growth, a representative volume element of a composite material for determining its material properties, a jointed rock mass, growth of a bubble in a liquid and solidification of a liquid.  Some applications to the mechanics and fracture of nanotubes are also described.

 

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Friday, January 17, 2003
2:00 p.m.
CMRR Auditorium

Dr. Robert S. Vecchio
Lucius Pitkin, Inc.

"
WORLD TRADE CENTER EMERGENCY RESPONSE"

            Following the collapse of the World Trade Center, an extensive engineering effort was mobilized by the NYC Department of Design and Construction to oversee collapse debris removal and assess the surrounding buildings.  Dr. Robert S. Vecchio, P.E. directed Lucius Pitkin Incorporated efforts in this regard and will briefly discuss the collapse and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center.

 

            Dr. Vecchio is a partner at Lucius Pitkin, Inc. (LPI), a 30 employee engineering consulting firm, which has been located in Manhattan since 1885.  As managing principal, he directs the technical and commercial aspects of the firm, which specializes in the fitness-for-service, failure, fatigue, and fracture mechanics analyses of structures and equipment.  At LPI, Dr. Vecchio has led many critical engineering assessments for New York City, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and many private companies worldwide.  Dr. Vecchio headed LPI’s participation in the World Trade Center emergency response efforts.  In addition, Dr. Vecchio has participated in the evaluation of many of NYC’s bridges and tunnels, and electrical, water, steam and gas distribution systems.  He has led efforts in response to numerous emergencies including the recent Indian Point nuclear power plant steam generator leak, the Washington Heights blackout, the Times Square scaffolding collapse, and the Gramarcy Park steam main and Hellgate main explosions.  Dr. Vecchio is a licensed Professional Engineer and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, a master’s degree in Structural engineering, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Materials Engineering.

 

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Monday, December 9, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor G. Ravichandran
Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories
California Institute of Technology

"Mechanical Behavior of a Bulk Metallic Glass and its Composite Over a Wide Range of Strain Rates and Temperatures"

The development of bulk metallic glasses, with desirable mechanical properties such as strength (~2 GPa) and elastic limit (~2%), as well as good glass forming and shaping abilities, offers opportunities to utilize this class of solids as structural amorphous materials.  In this talk the mechanical behavior of a bulk metallic glass Zr41.2Ti13.8Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 (Vitreloy 1) and its composite (b-phase Vitreloy composite, i.e., Zr56.2Ti13.8Nb5.0Cu6.9Ni5.6Be12.5) is discussed. The stress-strain relations for Vitreloy 1 over a broad range of temperatures (up to the crystallization temperature) and strain rates (10-4 to 2x103 s-1) were established in uniaxial compression.  The effect of strain rate and temperature on steady state flow stress, viscosity, and peak stress, as well as the effect of jump-in-strain-rate on the stress-strain behavior, are discussed.  Based on the experimental results, boundaries between the main deformation modes are proposed involving Newtonian flow and nonlinear flow resulting in homogeneous deformation and shear-localized failure. A fictive stress model is shown to capture the stress-strain behavior over the entire range of strain rate and temperature. A dynamic indentation experimental setup was developed to evaluate the high-strain-rate inelastic post yield deformation behavior of Viteloy 1 and its b-phase composite. Both materials are found to be strain rate insensitive up to 2,000 s-1.  Numerical simulations of the indentation experiments reveal that both materials are pressure (or normal stress) dependent. To further examine the inelastic deformation of amorphous alloys at room temperature, multiaxial compression experiments using a confining sleeve technique were performed. It is found that the behavior of Vitreloy 1 follows a pressure dependent Tresca criterion. In contrast to the catastrophic shear failure behavior observed in uniaxial compression, Vitreloy 1 accommodates large (>10%) inelastic deformation through the formation of multiple shear bands.

 

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Monday, December 2, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor Sia Nemat-Nasser
Center
of Excellence for Advanced Materials
University
of California San Diego

"Ionic Polymer-metal Composites as Soft Actuators and Sensors:  Experiments and Nanoscale Modeling"

Ionomeric polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are soft actuators and sensors. They generally consist of a thin polyelectrolyte membrane, plated on both faces by some noble metal, generally platinum with a layer of finishing gold, and neutralized with necessary amount of counter-ions, balancing the charge of anions covalently fixed to the membrane. When a thin strip of an IPMC membrane in the hydrated state is stimulated by an application of a small (1–3 V) alternating potential, it undergoes a bending vibration at the frequency of the applied voltage, generally no more than a few tens of Hertz.  Under an applied direct current (DC), the composite quickly bends toward the anode, then slowly relaxes in the opposite direction. When the same membrane is suddenly bent, a small voltage of the order of millivolts is produced across its faces. Hence, IPMCs can serve as soft actuators and sensors. Through a systematic experimental characterization of these composites under various conditions, potential nano-scale coupled electrical-chemical-mechanical mechanisms responsible for the observed behavior of the materials, are identified and mathematically modeled.  Examples of the model results will be presented for illustration. 

 

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Monday, November 25, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

Daniel R. Mumm
Princeton Materials Institute
Princeton University


"Cellular metals for lightweight multifunctional structures and platform protection"

Cellular metal structures have mechanical and thermal attributes that promote their use as core elements in lightweight structural panels, with application to advanced aerospace platforms, expeditionary vehicles, surface ships and underwater naval vehicles. These materials, comprising either stochastic foams (open-cell or closed-cell) or open period truss networks, have been implemented in sandwich panel construction. New approaches to the fabrication of cellular metal structures have been developed, with cost, performance and durability advantages. Novel core fabrication technologies utilizing in situ foaming, metal textile, perforated sheet and discrete pin approaches will be discussed.  The mechanics of the various structures will be described, and experimental measurements will be compared with theoretically-derived optimal designs, for panels subjected to both static and dynamic loading.  Performance metrics are utilized to compare various core topologies, showing that open cellular systems with topologically optimized core elements may outperform existing sandwich panel construction techniques (honeycomb panels and stringer-stiffened plates), while enabling other functionalities such as integrated sensing and thermal management.  A key concept in the design of such systems is how the core elements respond to various loading scenarios (aerodynamic pressure loading vs. blast loading). Tailoring the response of the core truss elements in terms of bending dominated behavior or stretching/compression dominated behavior is a critical consideration. The mechanical performance is examined as a function of design variables including core density, truss element geometry, and geometrical aspects of the periodic structure. The ability to locally tailor the core geometry, and the resulting effects on the failure modes under loading, will be described. Recent developments (such as the bombing of the USS Cole) have shifted the focus of our work from lightweight construction to the use of cellular metal systems for platform protection (both ballistic and blast environments).  Differences in the optimal periodic core topologies for lightweight structures blast-resistant materials will be discussed, and  concepts for the development of integrated armor systems will be introduced.  The talk will also include a brief discussion of the development of novel morphing structures utilizing similar cellular metal fabrication and topological design concepts.

After completing undergraduate studies at the
University of Minnesota, Dr. Mumm attended Northwestern University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering. His thesis research involved studies of interfacial effects and toughening of fiber-reinforced ceramic composite materials.  He then held a position at the Rockwell Science Center, where his research was directed at understanding and tailoring the thermo-mechanical performance of polymer, metal, and ceramic-matrix composites.   He has since held positions at Harvard University and Princeton University, where his research and teaching activities have been focused on microstructural characterization, the performance and durability of thermal barrier coatings, and lightweight metallic cellular solids. As a research scientist and lecturer at Princeton, he continues to research the thermo-mechanical behavior of coatings, films, multi-layers and cellular solids, emphasizing work on high temperature systems, multi-functional materials and morphing structures.  As of the first of the year, Dr. Mumm will join the University of California, Irvine as a member of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

 

 

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Monday, November 4, 2002
1:00 p.m.
Reissner Conference Room, SERF 341

David Steigmann
Associate Professor
Mechanical Engineering
University
of California, Berkeley

"Modern Developments in E. Reissner's Tension Field Theory"

 

In one of his first papers, E. Reissner developed a modified version of membrane theory called 'tension-field theory' to account for wrinkling in thin sheets under twist and shear.  His efforts gave rise to a specialized literature in Structural Mechanics. In this talk we reconsider this subject using the modern tools of Nonlinear Elasticity. We show that tension fields possess a number of unique physical and mathematical properties. Some combined analytical and numerical results are obtained for complex three-dimensional finite deformations of thin membranes with tension fields included. These are shown to exhibit many of the complex qualitative features observed in simple experiments.

 

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Monday, November 4, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

 

George T. (Rusty) Gray III

Materials Science and Technology Division

Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

"Dynamic Deformation and Modeling of Inert and Energetic Materials"

 

The mechanical response of materials has become of increasing importance in a range of problems.  To attain a truly predictive capability to enable accurate simulations of dynamic impact, shock, and high-rate loading phenomena applications require a linked experimental, modeling, and validation program. The derivation of physically-based models is only achieved via close collaboration between experimentalists and modelers.  Small-scale experimentation is validated through the use of integrated scaled-up tests, which are tied to finite-element (FE) simulation and analysis. This cross-linked process affords the chance to build the necessary bridges across the length scales from microstructure to full-scale structures through a linked and validated scheme to match physical phenomena modeling to engineering response. Efforts to attain these objectives are assessed and new advances highlighted in approaching this integrated response.

 

Dr. Gray is a Laboratory Fellow and Team Leader in the Dynamic Materials Properties Section in MST-8 at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  His research is focused on structure/property relationships during the deformation of materials, in particular in response to high-strain-rate and shock deformation.  The scope of the research on substructure evolution and mechanical response under dynamic loading conditions has included: metals, alloys, intermetallics, composites, and polymers.  His research has focused on utilizing high-rate Split-Hopkinson bar and shock recovery experiments as part of an interdisciplinary research team combining real-time experiments, theoretical modeling, and post-shock material studies to investigate defect generation and storage during high-strain rate and shock loading.  Dr. gray has developed and promoted the use of "soft" shock recovery techniques for systematically studying the influence of shock-wave loading parameters on post-shock material response.  The generation of unique defect structures, such as deformation twins, microbands, and pressure-induced phase products (such as w-phase in Ti), remains an active topic of his research.

 

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Monday, October 28, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

 

Professor Kaushik Bhattacharya

California Institute of Technology

 

"Shape-memory alloys: From microstructure to macroscopic properties"

 

Shape-memory alloys are interesting materials due to their unusual ability to "remember" particular shape.  This ability arises from the characteristic microstructure that they form.  This talk will review the progress that has been made in understanding why these materials form these microstructures, how these microstructures give rise to the macroscopic properties and how one can use this understanding for the development of new materials and applications.  Theoretical tools that enable this multi-scale analysis will be described and experimental validation of theory will be discussed.

 

Kaushik Bhattacharya is currently a Professor of Applied Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and has been on the faculty there since 1993.  He received his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1986, his Ph.D in Mechanics from the University of Minnesota in 1991 and his post-doctoral training at the Courannt Institute for Mathematical Sciences during 1991-1993.  He has held visiting positions at Cornell University, Heriot-Watt University (Scotland), Max-Planck-Institute (Leipzig, Germany), Cambridge University (England) and the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore, India).  He has been involved in research in the Mechanics of Materials, especially in the area of Active Materials for over 15 years.  He has authored over 50 articles in the leading peer-reviewed international scientific publications and has given invited and plenary lectures at various professional organizations and universities in the United States, Europe and Asia.  He received the Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1994.  He has organized numerous international meetings including a four-month program at the Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, England in 1999, and upcoming international Conference on the Mathematical Aspects of Materials Science in 2004.  He serves on the Editorial Board of the Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis.

 

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Monday, October 21, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

 

Professor Nasr M. Ghoniem
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
UCLA

"DESIGNING MATERIALS WITH POWERFUL COMPUTERS AND THE

MULTISCALE MODELING APPROACH"

 

Computers are becoming ever more powerful, theory and software more sophisticated and at the same time, material volumes in engineered devices are shrinking! This state of affairs is presenting vast challenges to the science and engineering community. Recently, a “multiscale modeling strategy” has been proposed, in which material behavior is computationally simulated at a hierarchy of length and time scales. The promise of this approach is that we can “engineer” materials from the atoms up for more exotic applications, with new research opportunities to meet this formidable challenge. In this talk, we describe the strategy of multiscale modeling in the context of plasticity and fracture of structural materials in future fusion energy systems. We briefly discuss the hierarchy of computational methods employed in this approach, and then focus on the role of dislocations as the elementary carriers of plasticity and fracture. The method of 3-d dislocation dynamics, which is based on the equations of motion of space curves, is derived from variational principles. Computer simulations for the plastic deformation of nano- and micro-volumes of materials will be shown to illustrate applications of computational dislocation dynamics to the study of plastic instabilities and shear bands in irradiated materials. We will finally discuss a number of unsolved problems and challenges in this emerging field of multiscale materials modeling.

 

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Monday, September 23, 2002
2:00 p.m.
479 EBU-II

Michael Paukshto, Ph.D.
Optiva, Inc.
South San Francisco, CA

"New Nano-Film Crystal Optical Materials"

 

Optiva Inc. has pioneered the development of thin crystalline film (TCF) optical coatings for use in information displays and other applications.  TCF technology has now migrated out of the R&D stage into manufacturing and is currently being incorporated into new display products. This presentation will provide an overview of TCF technology and will describe material structure, optical properties and characterization, material processing and associated coating equipment.

 

The materials are based on polycyclic aromatic compounds. Chemical modification of compounds changes hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance of disk-shaped molecules and makes them water-soluble with aggregation into rod-like supramolecules in aqueous solution and subsequent formation of supramolecular lyomesophases. Coating techniques provide control of crystallographic axes direction of the final crystal film. Shear force that is applied during deposition controls alignment of supramolecules. Structure of liquid material, wet coating and resulting 100-700 nm thin solid crystal films has been studied optically and by X-ray diffraction.

 

Michael V. Paukshto received Ph. D. and Dr. Sci. from St. Petersburg University. From 1981 to 1994 he served as a Staff Senior Scientist at Smirnov Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics at St.-Petersburg and later on as a Staff Senior Scientist at Institute for Mechanical Engineering Problems, Russian Academy of Science. From 1994 to 1998 he is a Professor at St. Petersburg University, as well as a Visiting Research Scientist at Institute for Mechanics and Materials at the University of California at San Diego. Since 1998, he is a Senior Scientist at Optiva, Inc. Dr. Paukshto has published more than 100 scientific papers and 5 monographs. His research area is Material Science, Computational engineering and Optics.

 

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Thursday, August 29, 2002
11:00 a.m.
479 EBU-II

E.M. Bringa
Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate
Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory

"Simulating shock-induced plasticity in single crystal Cu"

 

Large scale molecular dynamics simulations with the embedded atom method (EAM) potentials are used to simulate shock propagation in single crystal Cu for different crystal orientations. Simulations were performed for a wide range of pressures (2-300 GPa) and agree well with recent experimental data. Large anisotropies are found for shock propagation in Cu, with different plasticity mechanisms along different directions. We have observed for the first time the formation of nano-twins in shocked Cu. Due to post-shock evolution they could transform into the micro-twins seen in experiments at similar shock pressures. Experiments for "single crystals" deal with samples having a small initial defect density, including point defects, dislocations, etcetera. Therefore, simulations were also run for crystals with dislocation sources, vacancies and nano-void distributions before the shocks. Large vacancy concentrations (up to 0.5 %) do not change significantly the Hugoniot nor the Hugoniot elastic limit (HEL); however, the inclusion of voids decreases the HEL significantly. Simulations of the activation of a Frank-Read dislocation source also give insights into shock-induced dislocation multiplication process.

 

This work was performed under the auspices of the U. S. Department of Energy by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. W-7405-Eng-48

 

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Monday, August 19, 2002
2:00 p.m.
479 EBU-II

Professor Neil K. Bourne
Royal Military College
of Science
Cranfield University
, Shrivenham, UK

"DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF MATERIALS AT RMCS"

 

A comprehensive, multi-disciplinary centre at RMCS is being created to assess or construct models for materials and structures under extreme dynamic loads. The Centre creates an interlocking set of tools, methods and knowledge bases to enable accurate simulation of the complete loading and failure history of land, air, sea and space structures. Recent work has continued on the shock response of a range of materials including metals, polymers and brittle materials. The work is aimed principally to look at mechanisms operating on these classes of material with the hope that better models might be constructed to describe constitutive behavior. There have been various recent studies of strength effects in metals including conventional high-impedance alloys and in some intermetallics (for use in jet turbine engines). The results presented show some new interpretations of the response of these materials to shock loading. The classical view of high-rate tensile failure is seen to only describe aspects of the phenomenon of spallation in a first-order manner. In particular, the correlation between the reload signals observed with the microstructure of recovered targets means that more advanced theoretical descriptions must be constructed. Also, assumptions as to the effects seen when realistic pulse shapes are applied relative to the top-hat pulse of plate impact need quantifying. An overview of recent results is presented with indications of theoretical work necessary. Brittle materials respond to plate impact loading in a variety of ways. In particular, it was noticed that glasses failed later behind the shock front in a failure wave. A range of polycrystalline ceramics has been tested and they too appear to fail in this manner. Further, the strengths measured indicate that there are perhaps two different classes of material; those that fail in a purely ductile manner, and those that fail brittle manner. The work done is reviewed and explanations are suggested to explain brittle response under shock loading. Polymers have received less attention than ductile or brittle materials. We have tested a range of materials over the past few years to determine their equation of state but also their strength behavior under shock. An overview of the trends observed is presented and new results for shock-recovered materials are presented.

Illustrations of shock and dynamic fracture work on each of these classes of material are given to show the range of the work underway.

 

 

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Information: (858) 534-3980