CAREER: Processing and Development of a New Ultra-Light High-Strength Material

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This Early Faculty Career (CAREER) development plan will address the increasing needs of the aerospace, naval, automotive, medical and other industries for advanced materials to provide the lightweight and high strength components. A new high strength ultra-light material will be developed, processed, and tested. This research is divided into three main tasks: (1) new closed cell metallic foam with a uniform cell structure will be processed using preform hollow spheres. This will lead to an improvement of the cyclic lifetime of the material. (2) Fiber reinforced metal matrix preform wires will be embedded into the new foam structure with the goal of providing higher strength materials. (3) The new fiber reinforced metallic foam will be mechanically tested and its deformation behavior will be mapped. At this stage if the properties of the material need any improvement, the processing techniques will be tailored to address those issues. The results will be presented in a variety of conferences and workshops. The education plan for this project involves four complementary initiatives: (1) Collaboration with international universities to expose the students to international issues. (2) Course development in advanced materials, including metallic foaming presented over the Internet for distance learning purposes. (3) Recruiting underrepresented and/or female students in local colleges and high schools. (4) Undergraduate students will become involved in this research through an undergraduate Independent Research Project course. Graduate students will be involved in coordinating the undergraduate research course and it will contribute to the integration of undergraduate and graduate education. The research project will work towards developing collaborations, new teaching courses, presentations and seminars to strengthen not only the knowledge of the participants, but also the broader audiences. The technical outcome of this work is on producing new ultra-light, high-strength materials that eventually will benefit the society through great impact on improved fuel economy, energy consumption, safety and reduced maintenance of moving structures