New Specimen Design for Studying the Growth of Small Fatigue Cracks with Surface Acoustic Waves

The study of small surface fatigue cracks in AISI 4140 quenched and tempered steel by a nondestructive surface acoustic wave technique is summarized. A novel cantilevered bending, plate-type fatigue specimen is described that is compatible with the acoustic method. Small cracks are initiated from a 25-μm deep surface pit produced by an electrospark machine. The importance of studying thes

Work in Progress – Classical Ballet Structure and Practice Applied to Engineering Class Sessions

Classical ballet classes have a universal structure that fosters active in-class learning. This structure creates a safe environment for students to try, fail, be corrected, and succeed. Engineering classes lack a common structure; most learning in engineering occurs outside of class. Engineering classes could move toward adopting a similar structure to ballet to improve in-class learning and mirror engineering culture and practice. The paper describes aspects of ballet class structure and practices that work and how these can apply to engineering classes. A new engineering class session structure is presented following the ballet model where engineering students are motivated to participate and learn during the class

Use of Friction Stir Processing and Friction Stir Welding For Nitinol Medical Devices

Metallic materials may be joined utilizing a friction stir processing technique. The friction stir processing technique utilizes a shaped, rotating tool to move material from one side of the joint to be welded to the other without liquefying the base material

Curricula to Educate the 2020 MSE Engineering Professional: Simple But Powerful Changes in the Way that MSE is Taught

National leaders in science and technology sectors speak in unison as they call for engineers who are not only technically competent in their fields, but who possess the abilities to communicate well, to work on teams, to apply systems thinking, to operate in the global business environment, to design within a greater set of constraints (environmental, health and safety, sustainability, economic, societal, political, manufacturability, and ethical). In short, our challenge is to educate an engineering professional who is far more sophisticated than the engineer of the 20th century. Additionally, challenges brought on by the overuse of natural resources put a special responsibility on materials science and engineering (MSE) faculty, whose role it is to assist in shaping the MSE profession. How can faculty deliver relevant curricula for the MSE engineering professional in an already crowded curriculum? Certainly curricular content must be up-to-date. However, a number of the goals can be met through changing the way in which the curriculum is delivered. In particular, we have emphasized mastery at the lower levels to increase retention, and implemented a number of learning “best practices”. Our preliminary results are promising: within one year, we were able to reverse a five-year trend in declining enrollment; we have just finished our fourth consecutive year of 100% on-time completions of senior projects; students exhibit a shift in mindset towards a greater awareness of their professional responsibility to serve humanity. In this paper, we will provide a survey of the techniques that we have used along with some preliminary results from our program

The Foundation Series on Corrosion: Integrating Science, Math, Engineering & Technology in a Lab Setting

We have developed a laboratory module focusing on the subject of corrosion. The module itself is designed to be completed in one three-hour session. It consists of three parts: I. The Impact of Corrosion Media, II. The Impact of Corroding Materials, III. The Impact of Anode/Cathode Sizes. Our objectives in developing this module were to address the need for clear bridges between math, science and technology in the engineering curriculum and to provide a means of faculty development primarily at community colleges. As a result, it was designed to allow the engineering student to experience the synergy of science, math and engineering technology in a laboratory setting. Recent findings in learning theory research were used in the design of the module to reach students of diverse learning styles. Our targeted audience is sophomore engineering majors at community colleges and institutions without Materials Science and Engineering programs. In this paper we will present the module, its goals, objectives and performance criteria, and the preliminary results of its implementation

AGRICOH: A Consortium of Agricultural Cohorts

AGRICOH is a recently formed consortium of agricultural cohort studies involving 22 cohorts from nine countries in five continents: South Africa (1), Canada (3), Costa Rica (2), USA (6), Republic of Korea (1), New Zealand (2), Denmark (1), France (3) and Norway (3). The aim of AGRICOH, initiated by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and coordinated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), is to promote and sustain collaboration and pooling of data to investigate the association between a wide range of agricultural exposures and a wide range of health outcomes, with a particular focus on associations that cannot easily be addressed in individual studies because of rare exposures (e.g., use of infrequently applied chemicals) or relatively rare outcomes (e.g., certain types of cancer, neurologic and auto-immune diseases). To facilitate future projects the need for data harmonization of selected variables is required and is underway. Altogether, AGRICOH provides excellent opportunities for studying cancer, respiratory, neurologic, and auto-immune diseases as well as reproductive and allergic disorders, injuries and overall mortality in association with a wide array of exposures, prominent among these the application of pesticides

Simulation of the ILC Collimation System using BDSIM, MARS15 and STRUCT

The simulation codes BDSIM, MARS15 and STRUCT are used to simulate in detail the collimation section of the International Linear Collider (ILC). A comparative study of the collimation system performance for the 250 x 250 GeV machine is conducted, and the key radiation loads are calculated. Results for the latest ILC designs are presented together with their implications for future design iterations

Material Damage Test for ILC Collimators

Simulations were completed to determine the energy deposition of an ILC bunch using FLUKA, Geant4 and EGS4 to a set of different spoiler designs. These shower simulations were used as inputs to thermal and mechanical studies using ANSYS. This paper presents a proposal to optimize the material choice and mechanical design of ILC spoilers jaws using ATF and benchmark the energy deposition simulations and the ANSYS studies giving the researchers valuable data which will help achieve a definitive ILC spoiler design