Engineering Commons^™

Developing The Stress Strain Curves For An Epoxy Undergoing High Speed Impact, Stanford L. Howdyshell 7867559

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Hopkinson Split Bar test can be used to accurately develop the relationship between the stress and strain a material undergoes during a high speed impact (rates of 1000/s). This information has many industrial uses, for example the auto industry can use this technology to analyze how materials will behave under crash-like circumstances. In this experiment the stress-strain curves were developed for the PC-Plumbing epoxy.

One of the variables that can be adjusted in the Split Hopkinson Bar test is the ration between the height of the sample and the width of the sample (Hs/Ds). This experiment investigated how three …

Diffusive Behavior Of Physically Cross-Linked Hydrogels, Morgan A. Stilke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A hydrogel is a water swollen polymeric network that has the potential to transform a variety of biomedical applications because of its biocompatibility and water content. Unfortunately, hydrogels typically have poor mechanical robustness. The majority of the content is water, while the remaining structure consists of a physical network, a covalent network, or a combination of both, yielding strength and toughness. There are several strategies attempted to improve mechanical properties including double network hydrogels comprised of two interpenetrating networks: one being a highly crosslinked sacrificial network and the other being a weakly crosslinked network that maintains reversibility after deformation. However, …

Heterogeneous Thermal Effects On Structural-Grade Steel, Eric Wickersham

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The AISC Steel Construction Manual covers structural steel design while at atmospheric and elevated temperatures. The manual does not, though, cover what happens to the steel after it has cooled from elevated temperatures. To fill in this knowledge gap, A36 steel was studied with respect to three main criteria: time, temperature, and cooling. Time was sub-divided into a standard burn (17-20min) and a prolonged burn (90min). Temperature was sub-divided into an average burn (600-800⁰F) and an extreme burn (>1200⁰F). To reach such temperatures, a forge was constructed and used during the burning process. Cooling was sub-divided into standard (air …

Oxidation Resistance Of Nanocrystalline 316l Stainless Steel Processed By High Pressure Torsion, Kevin J. Meisner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

High Pressure Torsion (HPT) is a materials processing method used to refine the grain size of metallic materials through the application of simultaneous axial and torsional strain. HPT is reported to result in nanocrystalline structure, which the current scientific literature suggests may improve the high temperature oxidation resistance by enhancing diffusion of solutes, particularly Cr, to the surface to form a protective external oxide scale. If oxidation resistance is improved, this possibly allows the use of 316L in oxidizing environments where more expensive alloys are typically used. However, the influence of grain refinement to nanoscale on various properties have been …

Optimizing Solvent Blends For A Quinary System, Thomas L. Hoy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Department of Polymer Engineering had received a grant from the Keck foundation to produce a process in which hundreds of copolymers can be formulated, synthesized, analyzed and then extrapolated to produce the optimal polymer for the desired material property. This process involves synthesizing approximately fifty polymers in a custom apparatus, none of which necessarily have the same monomer components. This leads to issue of which solvent or blend of solvents to use that would sufficiently dissolve both monomers and the resulting copolymer. If the monomers are not completely dissolved, a homogenous reaction will be impossible and if the copolymer …

Galvanic Corrosion On Monel K-500 And 1018 Carbon Steel Couple, John K. Nnyanzi

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research project was to evaluate galvanic damage on 1018 Carbon Steel coupled to Monel K-500 at varying rotation speeds on a rotating cylinder electrode in an aerated solution of ASTM artificial seawater. The work in this project is and attempt to study corrosion behavior for a Monel fastener coupled to a Carbon Steel plate. Polarization curves of each material at different rotation speeds were created to predict the corrosion behavior for a galvanic couple of Carbon Steel and Monel. The Potentiodynamic sweeps predict an increase in the corrosion current density for the galvanic couple when then …