April 1, 2008

Purdue holding summit on advanced defense technologies

Talks will include discussion of research related to Purdue's new Center for Systems Integrity, said Alan H. Rebar, senior associate vice president for research and executive director of Discovery Park at Purdue.

"The center is researching revolutionary methods for monitoring and improving the integrity of defense systems in all stages of the life cycle and at all scales of the system structure," Rebar said. "The research includes work to develop new types of systems for sensing and maintaining the functional integrity of military vehicles and aircraft."

The center is the conference host and involves more than a dozen Purdue faculty members focusing on research to detect and repair damage to military vehicles and aircraft.

The Purdue Systems Integrity for Defense Technology Summit, April 8-9 at the University Plaza Hotel in West Lafayette, Ind., will bring together experts from the U.S. Air Force, Marines, Navy and Army. Keynote talks will be presented on both days by experts from those military branches.

Douglas E. Adams, center director and a Purdue associate professor of mechanical engineering, will give an introductory talk at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday (April 8) in the University Square room. Rebar and Purdue interim Provost Victor L. Lechtenberg will follow with talks about the importance of defense research to Purdue and the role of universities in defense-related research.

A 40-minute keynote talk will be presented at 9:05 a.m. by Gary Schultz, chief engineer for the PMO Stryker, Systems Engineering Division, U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM. Schultz will talk about the Stryker family of vehicles and future techniques to monitor systems in the vehicles to help ensure reliability.

Speakers from Purdue and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research and Development Engineering Center will give talks from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday (April 8).

U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Jay Montgomery, assistant program manager, logistics, for the Kilo heavy-lift helicopters, will give a keynote talk at 1:15 p.m. on "transformative" military technologies, with special emphasis on the new CH-53K helicopter that is expected to be deployed in 2013. Such helicopters are critical for transporting vehicles and equipment over rough terrain.

Speakers from Purdue and the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center will give talks from 2:35-4:30 p.m.

On Wednesday (April 9) at 8:35 a.m., Tom Cruse, former chief technologist for the Air Force Research Laboratory, will give a keynote talk, followed by a keynote talk by Donald R. Erbschloe, chief scientist for U.S. Air Force Air Mobility. Cruse will talk about activities within the Air Force to develop "integrated systems health management" technologies that assess the military readiness of aircraft. Erbschloe will talk about a "system of systems" approach to ensure the reliability and readiness of aircraft by assessing all factors, including logistics elements such as the availability of parts.

Speakers from Purdue and the Air Force Research Laboratory will give talks from 9:55-11:15 a.m. Wednesday (April 9).

Afternoon panel sessions on both days will include speakers from the Army, Air Force and Purdue.

"The panel discussions will provide an opportunity to identify common multidisciplinary research challenges that apply to all defense agencies and platforms," Adams said.

The conference also will include poster presentations by students. A few posters will address inspection and repair techniques for composite materials. These materials are made of layers of plastics and glass fibers, creating structures that are lighter and stronger than metals.

Composite materials will be used in the rotor blades and fuselage of the CH-53K next-generation heavy-lift helicopter.

"Because aircraft made of composite materials are lighter than those made of metals, they are able to carry more weight," Adams said.

Composite materials, however, pose some challenges because serious damage is often not easily detected and repaired.

Researchers in the new Purdue center are developing advanced systems that use sensors such as laser vibrometers and simulation models to detect damage. Researchers also are developing methods for repairing damaged parts.

"If you get impact damage to a composite material, it's not like a metal where you can easily see the scope of the damage just by looking at the part," Adams said. "Damage caused by a bird hitting the nose of a helicopter or rocky debris striking helicopter blades may look small on the surface but could be the size of a Frisbee under the surface."

Adams is leading work to perfect detection methods, including a system designed to be easy for technicians to operate in the battlefield. The system uses sound waves and simulations to detect damage within seconds, instead of hours, days or weeks needed for more conventional inspection methods.

An advantage of the "wide-area inspection" system is that it enables technicians to inspect large parts, such as a helicopter rotor blade, all at once instead of in segments, Adams said.

Other researchers in the center are concentrating on different technologies to ensure the structural integrity of vehicles and aircraft. Farshid Sadeghi, a professor of mechanical engineering, is working on a system of using wireless sensors to monitor critical structures in helicopters, including the tail booms and rotor blades.

The miniature "strain telemeter sensors" have a length of about 2 centimeters, or slightly less than an inch, and a width of 4 millimeters, roughly as wide as a grain of rice, and a weight of a few hundred milligrams. The devices, which will be further developed to require no batteries, contain tiny strain gauges to measure how much a part deforms due to load exerted on aircraft parts during use. Data from the sensors would provide an early warning of a part's impending failure to prevent accidents, Sadeghi said.

"An advantage of wireless sensors is that they can be used on rotating parts," said Sadeghi, who has been developing the wireless devices for more than a decade. "One of the biggest challenges is going to be embedding sensors in structural components without changing the characteristics and performance of those structural components."

Byron Pipes, a professor of materials engineering, is developing Band-Aidlike patches to repair damage to parts made of composite materials.

Some of the center's research is based in an 11,000-square-foot laboratory spacious enough to house large aircraft and vehicles. The center integrates research by faculty and students in areas that include mechanical engineering, aviation technology, aeronautics and astronautics, and electrical and computer engineering.

The Center for Systems Integrity was officially launched in February and is being funded by federal and industry sources, with an annual budget of about $3 million.

The new laboratory facility will open in early April. The center also uses key facilities and equipment in the university's Ray W. Herrick Laboratories and labs in the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, Forney Hall of Chemical Engineering and the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue's Discovery Park.

Registration for the conference is free, and more information is available by contacting Kristi Stroud at (765) 494-6350, kstroud@purdue.edu. Participants must RSVP.

Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Sources:   Douglas Adams, (765) 496-6033, deadams@purdue.edu

Alan Rebar, executive director of Discovery Park, (765) 496-6625, rebar@purdue.edu

Farshid Sadeghi, (765) 494-5719, sadeghi@ecn.purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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