Project Thermal Fatigue of Adhesive Bonding in Modular Additively Manufactured Fiber-Reinforced Composite Tooling Program Engineering First Time Researcher (FTR) Fellowship Term Spring 2025 Status Closed Research Area Manufacturing, advaced materials Description This project investigates the impact of thermal cycling on adhesive joints in additively manufactured fiber-reinforced composite tooling. Large composite tools are often joined in sections using adhesives, but repeated exposure to high temperatures during curing can weaken these joints, compromising tool integrity and vacuum performance. By simulating these thermal cycles and analyzing joint performance, the study aims to understand how adhesive durability can be improved for enhanced reliability in composite tooling applications. Supervisor Garam Kim Mentor Eduardo Barocio Vaca Type of work required Students will prepare additively manufactured composite test specimens and characterize their coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). They will apply adhesive joints for the double cantilever beam (DCB) fracture test and conduct vacuum integrity tests to evaluate adhesive performance across multiple thermal cycles. Additionally, students will perform finite element modeling to predict thermal stress in the adhesive layer. Websites https://www.purdue.edu/cmsc/
https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/facilities/raisbeck-advanced-composite-laboratory
Qualifications The student who has hands-on experience fabricating test specimens using equipment such as waterjet and CNC machines and conducting material characterization tests with a universal testing system is preferred. Proficiency in data analysis and familiarity with finite element analysis (FEA) tools, particularly Abaqus, is also preferred. Credit Hours 0 Weekly Hours 10 (estimated)