Project Info

Self-Healing During Fatigue due to Strain Aging

The project will investigate principles that may be used in a mechanism to perform localized heat treatments to enhance fatigue resistance of parts subjected to damaging fatigue cycles. Strain aging is a process where a low temperature heat treatment is applied to steel to allow carbon atoms to diffuse to dislocation cores, thus pinning them and increasing resistance to plastic deformation. Very little or no literature exists for applying this principle to fatigue loading, but it could be a mechanism, applied intermittently, to greatly extend fatigue life.

More Information

This article is a straightforward review of strain aging: https://www.totalmateria.com/page.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&site=kts&NM=392.

Grand Engineering Challenge: Restore and improve urban infrastructure

Student Preparation

Qualifications

The student ideally will have taken MTGN202. Overall, the student should be eager to perform hands-on laboratory experiments.

Time Commitment

20 hours/month

Skills/Techniques Gained

The student will be involved in all three aspects of materials engineering: processing, microstructure, and performance. The student will learn how to conduct heat treatments in the lab and perform fatigue tests and analyze the associated data. Some microstructural characterization techniques will also be employed.

Mentoring Plan

At the beginning of the project, I work with the student to develop the background necessary to conduct the project by teaching them the critical concepts and providing relevant reading material. I will work with them to establish the experimental plan and facilitate their lab training in a step by step way to bring them up to speed on techniques as they need them. As the project progresses, I will have regular meetings with the student to discuss their progress and use their project to teach them about the research process including asking good research questions and interpreting data.