Materials Joining and Non Destructive Evaluation Group Home Page

Mission
People
Capabilities
What have we done?
What are we doing now?
Who do we work with

Mission

To advance the science and technology of materials joining by developing welding and brazing procedures for a variety of materials and by studying the fundamentals of joining processes and their effects on the microstructure and properties of materials and to develop advanced techniques and associated equipment to examine and evaluate metals, ceramics, composites, films and other materials nondestructively.

A general overview is given in power point format here.

Group Members:

Past Group Members

Materials Joining Capabilities

Standard welding processes, including gas tungsten arc (GTA), Submerged arc (SA), gas metal arc

(GMA), and electroslag (ES)

Pulsed and high power continuous wave CO2 laser systems

High power electron beam welding machine

Internal bore tube-to-tube sheet welding system

Narrow gap SA welding system

Gleeble thermomechanical simulator

Sigmajig and varestraint weldability testing capability

Variable polarity plasma arc system

Weld vision system for weld pool dynamic studies

Interrupted and controlled solidification high-temperature furnace

Sessile drop apparatus for brazing alloy wetting studies

Ceramic-to-ceramic and ceramic-to-metal brazing capabilities

Non Destructive Evaluation Capabilities

Computed tomography

High frequency(HF) and very high frequency(VHF) ultrasonic testing

Acoustic microscopy

Nonlinear ultrasonics

Eddy currents

Past work includes

Understanding the relationships among processes, microstructure, physical and mechanical properties,

leading to the development of a unique, fast-transient 3D mathematical modeling and experimental

verification capability to address transport in welds and their influence on weld microstructures.

Understanding the evolution of the weld metal microstructures during welding and subsequent elevated

temperature exposure in support of welding single-crystal turbine blades and repair welding of

single-crystal turbine components.

Developing extensive expertise for brazing ceramics to related and non-related materials using special

braze filler materials and metallizing to overcome wetting problems.

Understanding solidification behavior and weld-cracking mechanisms in nickel aluminide alloys to guide

development of new alloys resistant to weld solidification cracking.

Supporting development of RF antennas for plasma heating by providing guidance for material selection

and conducting the joining procedure development for similar and dissimilar material combinations.

Routinely performing hot-cracking resistance tests on iridium alloy fuel cladding used in the space nuclear

program as a part of flight qualification for NASA missions.

Research Programs

Fundamentals of Welding and Joining
Application of Synchroton and Neutron Sources for In-situ Phase Transformation Study
Nickel Aluminide Program - OIT
New Generation Turbine Single Crystal Program - Fossile Energy
Virtual Welded Joint Design - Caterpillar Corporation - OIT (IMF Program)
Optimization of welding consumables - Lincoln Electric - OIT (Supporting Industries Program)
Wear Resistance Coatings through Laser Surface Alloying - Applied Research Laboratory - OIT (IMF Program)
Development of Fe-3Cr heat resistant steels - OIT (IMF Program)
Friction Stir Processing - OTT
Long Life Electrode Project - OTT
Space Power Program
MPLUS User Center