How can we engineer more resilient materials by understanding their behavior at multiple length scales?
Corrosion of reinforcing steel is one of the most prevalent deterioration mechanisms affecting reinforced concrete infrastructures. Using a variety of experimental, analytical, and computational methods we investigate this deterioration process. Our goal is to better understand this degradation mechanism and use this information in the design of more durable structures and develop techniques to monitor them in the field and in the laboratory. The photograph shows a bridge structure affected by corrosion of reinforcing steel that is being inspected visually.Fabrication of a hybrid 3D woven fiber-composite containing thermally conductive (carbon) and insulative (glass) reinforcement with high-fidelity microvascular networks for compact, counter-flow heat exchange.”Structural fiber-reinforced polymer composite containing 3D microvasculature for internal fluid circulation to achieve multifunctional performance such as (left) thermal regulation and (right) magnetic modulation.Components in the aerospace, energy, and automobile industries are notable examples where service conditions that include repeated start-up, high temperature dwell and shut-down cycles induce thermo-mechanical stresses that gradually degrade the component. Accurate prediction of the stresses in high-temperature components relies on experimental data of the material to imitate the fatigue cycles representative of the service conditions of the component. In this study, isothermal and thermo-mechanical experiments on Haynes 230 (a material used in Jet engine combustion liners) are performed, and an experimentally validated advanced constitutive model is developed to predict thermomechanical stress-strain responses. The model development and component analysis are performed in an integrated manner to improve the prediction of damage accumulation in jet engine combustor liners.
