MRI: Development of a Multi-Scale Thermal-Mechanical-Spectroscopic System for in-Situ Materials Characterization, Research, and Training

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This Major Research Instrumentation award supports the University of Central Florida (UCF) with the development of a Multi-Scale Thermal-Mechanical-Spectroscopic System (TMS) for in-situ materials characterization, research, and training. The instrument will support simultaneous thermal, mechanical, and spectroscopic (TMS) measurements over multiple length scales, pressures, mechanical loads, and temperatures. The instrument will enable accurate assessment and prediction of material/devices behavior under real-world operating conditions, studies of deformation micromechanics, monitoring structural changes and predicting lifetime, to characterizing materials over macro-/micro-length scales. The instrument will be ideal for capturing previously inaccessible aspects of material behavior under realistic conditions. This instrument development will result in a revolutionary tool with the potential to present new research findings, while spanning a wide range of applications in energy (e.g., turbomachinery), civil infrastructure (e.g., bridges), defense (e.g., high-performance aircrafts, armor). The project presents opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and mentoring of postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate students who will participate in building subsystems and integrating them into the instrument. The exposure to instrument development and integration with a state of the art equipment will enhance the education of the students in practical applications of theoretical designs, provide them with the experience of the design process for high-end instrumentation and expand their research focus to consider in situ techniques to expand existing research areas and lead to new fields of research. The developed system will be available to users at UCF.****Knowledge of initial and evolving mechanical properties of materials and parts is indispensable to detect undesirable crack growth, phase transitions, texturing, microcracking or other structural/geometrical instabilities that can lead to disastrous failure, particularly when components are in operation. The development of an instrumentation that supports simultaneous thermal-mechanical-spectroscopic (TMS) measurements over multiple length scales, pressures, mechanical loads, and temperatures will, for the first time, enable the capability to achieve such knowledge, as materials are evaluated in-situ under near-operational conditions. This award from the Major Research Instrumentation program supports the University of Central Florida with the development of a TMS system. The developed system for in-situ structural characterization and testing of materials on the various length scales under complex loading conditions at room or elevated temperatures in different environments will be available at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. The project will engage students and postdocs who will become the next generation of instrument developers.