The U.S.-Germany collaboration is on studying high-temperature ceramic coatings and this
is looking at it under thermal gradients and mechanical loads.
It was funded by the National Science Foundation's Catalyzing New International Collaboration
Initiative and it involves several parties, including myself from the University of Central
Florida, Dr. Annette Coulson from Cleveland State University, Dr. Maryanne Barsh from
the German Aerospace Center in Cologne, and it has the participation of Dr. Jonathan
Elmer from the Argonne National Laboratory.
It is a really synergistic collaboration because we all have complementary expertise
in this field.
The German Aerospace Center or DLR was significant for this project because they have experience
in applying these thermal gradient and mechanical loading to these thermal barrier coatings.
So they had the prior experience applying these loading conditions while we had the
prior experience taking the in-situ strain measurements.
So what we did is we decided to collaborate, use our knowledge of taking the strain measurements
and their knowledge of applying the loading conditions that could finally go.
We're working to develop an apparatus that includes both thermal gradient and mechanical
loading to test in realistic environments a thermal barrier coating on a traditional
substrate for turbine blades for jet engines.
We also used a synchotron x-ray beam to provide very bright x-rays to be able to analyze through
transmission strains and subsequently the stress that the coatings are feeling during
a representative 90-minute flight cycle.
A great challenge that came with this project was being able to do the scope of the work
in such a short amount of time.
So in less than six months, we went from here to Germany to Chicago to be able to build
this setup, which is a very rapid timescale to be able to achieve something of that magnitude.
We were working at the German Aerospace Center with Dr. Marion Marsh and a team of other
engineers there to help develop our system for implementation at the synchotron.
DLR has a long experience working with TGMF or thermal gradient and mechanical fatigue
setups, one of the only places in the world where you can find such a system that's used
to rapidly test and characterize different turbine samples.
While we were there, we were working directly with both Jeanine and Carla and Dr. Marsh.
We were able to learn a lot from the previous decade of research that DLR has done in developing
their system, learn what does work, what doesn't work, and what was the most effective way
to collect measurements.
And then we took our expertise with the synchotron and taking x-ray diffraction measurements
and we were able to blend the two together to be able to form an apparatus that proved
functional and providing great results in just less than six months.
We worked with a number of great scientists and researchers while we were in Germany.
Specifically at the DLR Faciliting Cologne, we worked with Dr. Scholz, who is one of the
experts in coding technology and it was incredible to see the machinery that's available and
the process he goes through to make our samples ultimately.
And we look forward to working with him in the future as he's going to be working with
us to provide samples for future experiments as we continue the collaboration.
In Germany we actually had the experience of joining Dr. Raghavan in some of her meetings.
So we got the experience that most graduates, students don't get of sitting in and the initiation
of an international collaboration.
So we got to sit down with her in her meeting at Ulesch Laboratory in Germany, which has
some world-renowned scientists there as well, which is not an opportunity that most Geiger
students get to go through.
There really wasn't a lot of large cultural hurdles to get over when going to Germany.
There were some cultural differences that are very beneficial for us being exposed
to.
For instance, there's a different work environment, whichever foreign country you go to.
So being exposed to how other people work in different work schedules, work ethics
makes you think of things at a different perspective when you're back home.
My favorite visit was being able to go down the Rhine River on a boat where you can see
castles on both sides, as well as just walking every single day, walking by Roman ruins.
You just get to see history on a daily basis that you don't get to here at home.
So at the end of the Rhine River cruise, we actually get to get out and hike up a hill
that was above a small village and walk through a castle that's been around since 1200.
Our lab here under the direction of Dr. Sita Raghavan has a long list of experience working
at Argonne National Labs, particularly with the advanced photon source.
So our team was able to bring to the table the experience working at a synchrotron, being
able to take X-ray diffraction measurements, and also to be able to show how to do strain
analysis based on X-ray diffraction patterns upon the completion of this experiment.
The technical objective actually had two subject objectives.
The first one is to apply real-world conditions.
So in order to do that, we actually apply a thermal gradient across thermal barrier
encoding, as well as apply a mechanical load to it.
So this was all being done while the second objective was to take in situ, in-cycle strain
measurements using the synchrotron X-ray at Argonne of these various internal layers.
The most difficult part with respect to Argonne was being able to work and experiment 24 hours
a day for four or five days.
Being able to run an experiment around the clock and still be able to think under feet.
We were able to work in and around some of the best scientists at the advanced photon
source, and many of which were very interested in our project.
While we were there setting it up and doing our initial testing, we did have a lot of
the people there at the advanced photon source stopping by just to see our project, including
the director of the entire advanced photon source at Argonne.
We have started to achieve research outcomes from this project in terms of the graduate
students being able to present at conferences.
We have started publishing papers on the work that we've done.
The graduate students have been mentoring undergraduate students through a number of
programs here at UCF, like the Excel grant program as well as the UCF Learn program.
The undergraduates involved in this have actually produced some research posters and given some
presentations which have an outreach to the community of researchers here at UCF.
And through this, we intend to get the word out on how international collaboration actually
benefits technical advances in the field.
