US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Development of Zn-based syntactic composite foams for high energy absorption applications

该项目支持纽约理工大学的Nikhil Gupta博士与埃及赫勒万中央冶金研究和发展研究所的Atef Daoud博士的合作研究工作。他们将研究“高能量吸收锌合金基复合泡沫的铸造和表征”。该项目的目标是开发可用于各种工业应用的轻质低成本能量吸收泡沫。这些泡沫将使用粉煤灰制造，从而回收工业废料，同时降低成本。该研究将侧重于开发一种低成本的锌合金复合材料泡沫的合成方法，表征合成的复合材料的各种负载条件和应用，并研究故障机制。锌合金的高密度在一些重要的应用中是一个限制，因此轻质复合泡沫的开发将有助于拓宽这些材料的应用。使用粉煤灰空心微珠作为中空颗粒将提供一种有价值的机制来利用这种工业废料，并降低复合材料的成本。合成工作将由埃及团队领导，致力于生产含有高体积分数粉煤灰空心微珠（体积高达50%）的复合材料。表征将由美国团队领导，包括材料的压缩、拉伸、振动、冲击和高应变率压缩测试。将对复合泡沫微观结构进行数值模拟，以获得力学性能的估计。这两个小组拥有互补的专门知识和设施，以帮助确保这种合作的有效性。该项目的主要智力优势包括开发轻质锌合金复合材料，了解锌合金复合材料的机械性能及其应变率敏感性，以及了解这些复合材料泡沫的失效机制。开发一种低成本的材料，同时重量也足够轻，适用于许多工业应用，这可能是非常有价值的。该项目的更广泛影响包括跨文化交流和智力发展，这是通过将来自两个国家的两个团队的互补专业知识结合在一起产生的。对两个团队的本科生和研究生以及初级科学家的培训将非常有价值。美国团队还将在研究中整合教育部分，在现有合作的基础上开发K-12教育视频，两个团队都将确保研究成果的广泛传播。该项目由美国-埃及联合科学技术基金项目资助。这些合作项目的美方支持由美国国务院提供给国家科学基金会。埃及政府为合作的埃及方面提供支持。

This project supports a cooperative research effort by Dr. Nikhil Gupta, Polytechnic University of New York with Dr. Atef Daoud, Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute, Helwan, Egypt. They will study "Casting and Characterizations of Zn alloy Based Composite Foams for High Energy Absorption". The goal of the project is to develop light-weight and low-cost energy absorbing foams that are useful in a variety of industrial applications. These foams will be manufactured using fly ash, thereby recycling an industrial waste material while also reducing cost. The study will focus on developing a low cost synthesis method for Zn-alloy composite foam, characterizing the synthesized composites for a wide variety of loading conditions and applications, and studying the failure mechanisms. The high density of Zn-alloys is a limitation in several significant applications, so the development of lightweight composite foams will help broaden the applications for these materials. The use of fly ash cenospheres as hollow particles will provide a valuable mechanism to use this industrial waste material and also reduce the cost of the composite. The synthesis work will be led by the Egyptian team, working on producing composites containing high volume fraction of fly ash cenospheres (up to 50% in volume). The characterization will be led by the American team and will include compressive, tensile, vibration, impact, and high strain rate compressive testing of materials. Numerical simulations will be conducted on the composite foam microstructure to obtain an estimate of the mechanical properties. Both groups have complementary expertise and facilities to help ensure the effectiveness of this collaboration. The key intellectual merits of the project include development of lightweight Zn-alloy composites, understanding of mechanical properties of Zn-alloy composites and their strain rate sensitivity, and knowledge of failure mechanisms of these composite foams. It is potentially very valuable to develop a low cost material that is also lightweight enough for many industrial applications.This project's broader impacts include the cross cultural exchange and intellectual development produced by bringing the complementary expertise of these two teams from two countries together. The training of undergraduate and graduate students as well as junior scientists on both teams will be very valuable. The U.S. team will also integrate an education component with the research, building upon existing collaborations to develop a k-12 educational video, and both teams will ensure a wide dissemination of the research results. This project is funded through the US-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund Program. Support for the U.S. side of these cooperative projects is provided to the National Science Foundation by the U.S. Department of State. The Egyptian Government provides support for the Egyptian side of the collaboration.