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CCM Alum Wins Prestigious Award for NDE Method

by Diane Kukich

The other significant feature of the SIDER method is that the identified damage areas can be mapped with great precision onto an image of the structure, allowing anomalies to be located quickly.

Crane and Ratcliffe have used SIDER to inspect the composite vertical stabilizers of the F-18 Super Hornet aircraft, the twisted rudder on the DDG guided missile destroyer, and the hull of the Office of Force Transformation M80 Stiletto all-composite ship.  In addition to these military platforms, SIDER has been used to inspect a composite road bridge on Route 896 in Delaware; a composite bridge deck in Dayton, Ohio; and an A320 composite vertical stabilizer.

“The cool thing for me is that the initial validation on large-scale composite inspection using SIDER started with the University of Delaware on the 896 bridge,” Crane says.  “Success there piqued the Navy’s interest in using it on other structures. Researchers at CCM had the foresight to see its value and allow us to take the risk to try the technique out.” 

Following successful validation of the technique on the Delaware bridge in 1998, Crane continued to collaborate with CCM on work related to SIDER through the ONR-funded Advanced Materials Intelligent Processing Center (AMIPC) Program. 

“Over the years, we have worked closely with Roger, applying this technology to other projects, including the Airbus tail and the HEMTT armored truck,” says Gillespie. “It’s very gratifying to see him become a successful branch chief and to be recognized for his pioneering research and creation of a new large-scale NDE technique.”

A current project in CCM’s CART (Composites Applied Research and Technology) program with the Army is addressing composite armor NDE. “The concept allows simple post-manufacturing and depot-level evaluation,” says CCM Assistant Director Dirk Heider. “Potentially, the SIDER approach could enable in-service health monitoring using vehicle vibration, allowing optimized maintenance scheduling and improved battlefield awareness.”

Crane and his colleagues, including Ratcliffe as well as Bill Marr of the U.S. Naval Academy and Maureen Foley of the NSWC Carderock Division, recently published the results of a proof-of-concept demonstration of the use of SIDER underwater.  Foley is also a CCM alum; she earned her Ph.D. in materials science under Gillespie’s advisorship in 2004.

“Removing such structures as composite rudders for inspection, or dry docking an entire ship just to inspect them, is expensive and time consuming,” Crane says.  “A detailed inspection method that could be used underwater to assess the structural health of components would be very valuable.”

Crane has received several other awards, including the Admiral Melville Award from NSWC, Annapolis in 1996, which is the highest honor bestowed on a single scientist at the Annapolis site for technical achievements and contributions to the Navy.  In addition, he received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the UD Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 1998.

That same year, Crane received the Third Annual Tibbetts Award in recognition of his unique contributions as an “SBIR Model of Excellence.”  Individuals and companies selected for this national award are recognized as having provided outstanding Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) leadership. Crane was cited for being a strong supporter of the SBIR Program for the previous 10 years, as both an evaluator and a topic sponsor.

“The SBIR award recognized Roger’s ability to develop and foster strategic partnerships among the public, private, and academic sectors,” Gillespie says, “while the Bowen Award recognizes a technical success growing out of that ability.  SIDER is an outgrowth of Roger’s technical and teaming expertise as well as the unbridled enthusiasm he brings to everything he does.”

OTHER NEWS

Stefan Huber is developing software for health monitoring, Martin Finger is doing mechanical testing on a carbon-fiber-reinforced wing for a Navy Air program, Mira Reuter is working on carbon-fiber-reinforced T-joints for Navy ships, and Olivia Polczyk is investigating the thermal conductivity of 3TEX materials.

Polczyk lives in a house with other students, Finger lives with a host family, Huber shares an apartment with other students, and Reuter rents a room from a faculty member.

Finger has enjoyed living with the host family, and he has found the family and their neighbors to be very friendly.  Within two weeks of his arrival here, he went on a two-week vacation with them to the Adirondacks. He has also been to New York, Philadelphia, and the beach; Florida, Las Vegas, California and the Rockies are on his wish list.

Finger found out about CCM from a friend who had done an internship at the Center.  “He found it interesting and learned very much, so I wanted to do it too,” Finger says.  “I also saw it as an opportunity to improve my English.”  He may stay on to do a master’s degree after his internship and would like to eventually teach at a university.

Reuter and Polczyk learned about opportunities at CCM from a professor at their home university who had spent time here as a visitor.  Polczyk, who is doing a diploma thesis, plans to stay in the U.S. when she completes her degree.  “I would like to get a job at CCM,” she says.  “It’s always been my dream to live in the United States.”

Huber knew that he wanted to go abroad and found the position at CCM through a professor at his home university.  “Working in the U.S. is different from Germany,” he says.  “It’s less rigid here, and we’re allowed to work more independently.  But transportation is an issue—getting around is difficult, especially on Sundays, if you don’t have a car.” 

Most of the students who visit take composites courses while they’re here.  Although they don’t get academic credit for the classes, they find both the technical information and the exposure to English valuable.

They also immerse themselves in American culture through activities ranging from soccer, volleyball, golf, and tennis to racquetball, cycling, and shopping. “Everything here is much cheaper than in Germany,” says Polczyk, who admits to spending much of her free time at local stores.

But she has also found significant benefits in the work environment offered at CCM.  “The experience in the lab here is very valuable,” she says.  “In the classroom, you can’t see or touch things, and I sometimes find that I don’t really understand what I’m learning.  It’s much better to learn by doing it yourself.”

Heider is dedicated to improving the network of contacts for students and would like to develop relationships that would enable more CCM-affiliated students to study and work abroad. “Composites is truly an international business,” he says, “so having that exposure is good for our students, as well as for the students who come here from other countries to work and do research.”

Work of CCM Alum Cited by NASA
By Diane Kukich

Simulating VARTM for Better Infusion By Diane Kukich LIMS, a resin flow simulation tool developed at CCM, is featured in a cover story in the January 2008 issue of High-Performance Composites.  The mission of the magazine, which is published in both print and web formats, is to “promote the use of advanced composite materials around the world by offering quality technical information.” The story highlights the use of LIMS by V System Composites to produce a structural aerospace part using the VARTM process.  Transition of the technology was facilitated by Dr. Jeffrey M. Lawrence (Ph.D.ME2006), who joined VSC in April 2007 after earning his Ph.D. at the University of Delaware and working at CCM as a staff member for several years.  While at CCM, Lawrence worked with Dr. Suresh Advani and Dr. Pavel Simacek on the development of LIMS.  He was hired by VSC to implement new infusion simulation and process monitoring capabilities, which will enable accelerated production insertion of VARTM and RTM structures.

The new part, a carbon/epoxy blade-stiffened aerospace structure, replaces a multipart metallic design. Its complexity increases the challenge of attaining complete wetout, uniform cure, and good fiber-resin bonding as well as reducing residual stresses—problems that can be mitigated or eliminated by LIMS.  The simulation builds robustness into the infusion process by enabling various injection and control scenarios to be tested before a mold is made and an actual part infused. 

“The ability of LIMS to accurately model industrial-size large-scale complex structures proves that it can serve as a risk mitigation tool in the development of prototype composite structures,” Advani says. “The flow simulation can save both time and money, as it reduces the scope of trial-and-error in the manufacturing process.”

The product of another CCM industrial partner also plays a key role in the use of LIMS, The mesh for the finite element analysis is generated by ABAQUS, which is made by SIMULIA, the Dassault Systèmes brand for realistic simulation solutions.

“This project exemplifies CCM’s ability to develop knowledge through our basic and applied research programs,” says Director Jack Gillespie, “and then to transition usable products based on that knowledge to industry and government through our partners.”

The full story, including full-color step-by-step graphics of the process, is available at http://www.compositesworld.com/hpc/issues/2008/January/112425.

CONSORTIUM

CCM would like to thank A2 Technologies LLC, Danbury, CT, Sensis Corporation, East Syracuse, NY, Xtreme Engineering, Harrington, DE, and Arkema, King of Prussia, PA, for becoming our newest consortium members. We also wish to thank AGY, Huntington, PA, BAE Systems, Santa Clara, CA, Hexcel Research & Technology, Dublin, CA for the recent renewal of their consortium memberships.

To learn more about the benefits of becoming a member, please visit us on the web at

www.ccm.udel.edu/Consortium/benefits.html

PUBLICATIONS

Journals

Abu Obaid, A. and S. Yarlagadda, "Structural Performance of the Glass Fiber-Vinyl Ester Composites with Interlaminar Copper Inserts", Composites Part A, 39, pp. 195-203, 2008.

Tang, Y., A. Kusoglu, A. M. Karlsson, M. H. Santare, S. Cleghorn, and W. B. Johnson, “Mechanical Properties of a Reinforced Composite Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and its Simulated Performance in PEM Fuel Cells,” Journal of Power Sources, 175, (2), pp. 817-825, 2008.

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