NSF Award: CAREER: Impact Resistance and Structural Health Monitoring of Bistable Composite Structures
| Category | Publications |
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| Abstract | In Summer 2008, the PI and two of her Ph.D. students had a very productive international research experience with the group of Dr. Göknur Bayram, associate professor of Chemical Engineering, Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey. The trip was sponsored by NSF IREE Program and its CMMI Division. Two main projects were carried out: design, manufacturing and testing of samples with carbon fiber reinforcement and polypropylene matrix, loaded with carbon black or carbon nanotubes, with the goal of increasing the samples’ conductivity for structural health monitoring; an investigation on the galvanic corrosion of polypropylene specimens with: carbon fibers; carbon black; carbon nanotubes; fire retardant. Notwithstanding some unexpected challenges, the PI and the students were able to have a very productive and enriching experience. Two abstracts have been submitted to two conferences as a result of this work, and one journal paper is being prepared. The PI and her students are happy to have had the opportunity to visit Dr. Bayram’s lab over the Summer, conduct multidisciplinary research on a novel topic, and start this collaboration. A Ph.D. student from METU is now applying for a fellowship to Tubitak, to come and work for six months in the PI’s lab, in 2009. |
| Contributor | Mourad Ouzzani
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| Bio | Valeria La Saponara received her B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering summa cum laude from the University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Naples, Italy, in 1994. For two years, she was a research fellow for the Microgravity Advanced Research and Support Center, Naples, Italy, a sub-contractor of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. She has M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech, where she worked for one year as instructor after her Ph.D. She was an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at University of Utah from 2002 to 2005, and in 2005 she joined the faculty of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering as assistant professor. She received an NSF CAREER Award in 2007. Research interests include applied mechanics of composite materials, wave propagation and crashworthiness.
Yoshino Sugita has a B.S. in Aviation Science and a commercial pilot license from Tarleton State University, TX, a M.S. in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from UC Davis (awarded in Fall 2008), and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in structural mechanics under the PI and a co-advisor from Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is also an instructor pilot and a FAA certified airframe and powerplant mechanics. For her work as an intern at NASA Ames in Summer 2007, and a team member of the Wildfire Research and Application Team, she received two prestigious service awards from NASA, and an award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium Far West Region. Bryan Loyola has a B.S. in Physics from UC Davis. He received the 2002 Sandia National Laboratories Scientific Scholar Award and was an intern at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In Summer 2006, he worked as an intern at CERN, Switzerland, then was a Ph.D. student of High Energy Physics at Michigan State University. However, after six months he realized to be more interested in applied science and engineering. He joined the Ph.D. program at UC Davis, and the PI’s research group. |
| Cite this work | Researchers should cite this work as follows: Valeria La Saponara, "NSF Award: CAREER: Impact Resistance and Structural Health Monitoring of Bistable Composite Structures", Trip report presented at the NSF IREE 2008 Grantees Conference, May 2008, Washington, D.C. |
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