Knoxville, TN, April 28, 2017… The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, IACMI, a Manufacturing USA institute which works to support advanced composite technology and grow capital investment and manufacturing jobs in the U.S. composites market, congratulates four Materials and Processing Group students for their selection to present at this year’s National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), held this month in Memphis, TN. IACMI-The Composites Institute is committed to accelerating development and adoption of cutting edge manufacturing technologies for advanced composites. The success of the industry depends on the continued workforce training and support of the future talent pipeline through the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and other strategic partners.
The research abstracts of Darren Foster, Sean Lee, James Eun and Stephen Young, all current students at UT and participants in IACMI’s Materials and Processing Group, were selected from over 4,000 submitted abstracts. Conference organizers described the three submissions as “a unique contribution to your field of study.”
Darren Foster
Each student worked closely with Dr. Dayakar Penumadu who serves as the Characterization Fellow for IACMI Materials and Processing directorate and holds the Fred N. Peebles Professorship in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UT’s Tickle College of Engineering. Mechanical characterization of microscale fibers and thin films was the topic of research presentation for Darren. Foster focused on utilizing a nano-tensile system to obtain structure-process-property relationships, advancing the larger goal to more accurately characterize properties of one-dimensional fiber-based functional materials.
Sean Lee
Sean Lee, a civil engineering student, presented his research on interfacial shear strength of carbon fiber composites. In his abstract, Lee stated that “interfacial shear strength, or how well the reinforcing fiber adheres to the matrix resin, is of paramount importance for developing next generation reinforced composites. Understanding the interphase is key to optimizing the load transfer among the fiber and matrix resin components of fiber reinforced composite materials.” His research is presently focused on utilizing this technique for obtaining precise mechanical properties of carbon fiber interphase.
James Eun
Stephen Young
James Eun, a physics and math major, in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Young, an IACMI M&P post-doctoral fellow at UT, presented on the development of laminography, a non-destructive method similar to computed tomography where 2D projections are collected over an angular range using x-rays. Their research, currently focused on utilizing this technique to study structure-process-property relationships of carbon fiber composites, explores the extremely useful information obtained from laminography for relating the visual 3D features and developing predictive relationships.
Dr. Penumadu is pleased with NCUR’s recognition of the students’ research and the beneficial partnership between IACMI and UT through their Materials and Processing Group Program. The Program, located in Tennessee and led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, focuses on development and characterization of energy-efficient, high-rate, and low-variability manufacturing processes from constituent materials through composite structures. IACMI’s Composite Materials and Process Technology Programs leverage core capabilities from supporting partner institutions including UT, the University of Kentucky, and Vanderbilt University while developing the skills of strong technical undergraduate and graduate students.
About IACMI-The Composites Institute: The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), managed by the Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation (CCS), is a partnership of industry, universities, national laboratories, and federal, state and local governments working together to benefit the nation’s energy and economic security by sharing existing resources and co-investing to accelerate development and commercial deployment of advanced composites. CCS is a not-for-profit organization established by The University of Tennessee Research Foundation. The national institute is part of the Manufacturing USA network and is supported by a $70 million commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, and over $180 million committed from IACMI’s partners. Find out more at IACMI.org.