Workshop: Durability of Polymers and Polymeric Composites: Current Challenges and Future Prospects; March 6th-7th 2013, Monterey, California

聚合物和聚合物复合材料在许多工程领域有着广泛的应用，从飞机部件、民用基础设施到核反应堆安全壳混凝土结构的改造等。利用聚合物结构的主要问题之一是其在复合机械载荷和恶劣环境条件下的耐久性，如温度波动和各种物质通过这些结构的扩散/反应。这些复杂的荷载会引起不同尺度的材料退化，最终导致结构失效。本次“聚合物和聚合物复合材料的耐久性”研讨会将成为NIST和保险商实验室“聚合物材料的使用寿命预测：展望未来”研讨会的一部分。NSF研讨会由两个会议和讨论小组组成。将有来自学术界、国家实验室和工业界的12名演讲者。此外，研究生提供的海报课程也被整合为整个研讨会的一部分。本次研讨会的目标是将活跃在聚合物工程材料耐久性领域的国内知名研究人员聚集在一起。他们将分享在聚合物和聚合物复合材料结构的降解和寿命预测的建模和实验理解/评估方面的最新进展。对于聚合物基结构在恶劣环境和复杂机械载荷作用下的失效机理，目前仍有许多尚未解决的科学问题。出席NIST研讨会的国内外科学家和制造商之间的互动预计将对解决当前许多工程应用中的耐久性问题产生巨大影响。本次会议的成果是解决当前的一些挑战，并确定聚合物和聚合物复合材料耐久性方面的共同研究重点。此次会议还将为美国学术界的研究人员提供与国家实验室和行业合作伙伴的研究人员合作的机会，以进一步改进预测各种加载历史下聚合物的寿命性能和降解的现有方法。该讲习班还促进妇女和任职人数不足的少数群体的参与。

Polymers and polymeric composites are appealing for many engineering applications, from parts of aircraft, civil infrastructures, to retrofitting nuclear reactor containment concrete structures, etc. One of the main issues in utilizing polymeric based structures is associated to their durability under combined mechanical loadings and hostile environmental conditions, such as temperature fluctuations and diffusion/reactions of various substances through these structures. These complex loadings will cause material degradation at different scales, and eventually lead to structural failure. This workshop on "Durability of Polymers and Polymeric Composites. will be part of the NIST's and Underwriters Laboratories" workshop on "Service Life Prediction of Polymeric Materials: Vision for the Future". The NSF workshop consists of two sessions and discussion panel. There will be twelve speakers from academic, national laboratories, and industry. In addition, a poster-session given by graduate students is integrated as part of the overall workshop. The goal of this workshop is to bring together national eminent researchers who are actively working in the field of durability of polymeric engineering materials. They will share recent developments in modeling and experimental understanding/assessment of the degradation and life prediction of polymers and polymeric composite structures. There are still many unresolved scientific issues on understanding the failure mechanisms in polymeric based structures under constant exposure to hostile environments and complex mechanical loading. The interaction between national and international scientists and manufacturers present at the NIST workshop is expected to have tremendous impact in resolving current durability issues in many engineering applications. The outcome of this meeting is to address some of the current challenges and identify common research priorities in durability of polymers and polymeric composites. This meeting will also open opportunities for US researchers in academia to collaborate with researchers from national laboratories and industry partners, for further enhancing current methods in predicting life performance and degradation in polymers under various loading histories. This workshop also promotes the participation of women and under-represented minorities.