I/UCRC Phase I (Site): Center for Integrative Materials Joining Science for Energy Applications (CIMJSEA) University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (UTK) Site

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The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) site of the Center for Integrative Materials Joining Science for Energy Applications (CIMJSEA) seeks to close the gap between material development and weldability and to develop scientifically based methodologies for assessing material weldability and joinability that span from the nanometer to millimeter length scales over a wide variety of materials, while educating and developing a new generation of materials joining engineers and scientists. The program seeks to identify
 critical joining-related challenges to ensure alignment of research projects and to explore
the development of materials specifically tailored for manufacturing. Research will be relevant 
to the future and existing manufacturing. The UTK site specialties include materials development, crosscutting capabilities that include multi-scale characterization
and modeling, as well as a new thrust area in additive manufacturing. The latter has the potential to benefit society in a multitude of ways including reducing scarce and dwindling raw materials. Proficient new engineers will design by building layer-by-layer instead of by subtraction, allowing for unlimited possibilities in design complexity. The program will reach out to a large age span of students, from elementary school onwards, by organizing and coaching younger students through LEGO league competitions, establishing and maintaining open 3D printing laboratories on campus, and by supporting Senior Capstone Design activities. Technical efforts of the UTK site will foster innovations in welding, materials joining and
additive manufacturing technologies through interdisciplinary research, bringing together design, robotics and automation, process control, materials science, advanced characterization and high-performance computational modeling. The research at the UTK site includes large-scale additive manufacturing and joining polymer matrix composites
to metals. In combination with existing joining technologies the efforts of the UTK site will create an environment where the development of hybrid material systems is accelerated and will be focused
on the scale-up of proven laboratory developments relevant to automotive, aerospace, and energy applications. The research will promote scientific discoveries related to the thermo-mechanical-chemical properties of interfaces between these constituent materials and advanced in situ and ex situ characterization techniques will be applied to understand issues such as cyclic thermal and
stress loading, residual stress development, and microstructural evolution. The end result will be a steady flow of fundamental research at the crossroads of joining and additive manufacturing.