College of EngineeringGraduate Student Orientation

21 August 2020

Vahid Motevalli, PhD, PEAssociate Dean for Research

& InnovationCollege of Engineering

vmotevalli@tntech.edu

We Want YOU! to be SUCCESSFUL

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Resources at CoE,

Working with the Centers

Engineering Graduate Students Orientation

Graduate Student Orientation

Fall 2020

Research Centers

Current College of Engineering Centers• Center for Manufacturing Research

(CMR)• Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) – part of CMR

• Center for Energy Systems Research (CESR)

• Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Outreach Center (TTU-CEROC)

University and External Funded Centers• STEM Center • Center for Water Resources (CWR)

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Center for

Energy

Systems

Research

Center for Manufacturing Research (CMR)

Dr. Ying Zhang

CMR Director

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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1. Conducting Cutting-Edge

Research

2. Assisting Local Industries

3. Educating/training the

manufacturing workforce

What do we do?

• Digital Design & Manufacturing

− Additive Manufacturing

− Advanced Robotics and Controls

− Cybersecurity in Manufacturing

(through collaboration with CEROC)

• Sustainable Materials &

Manufacturing

− Materials Processing & Modeling

− Energy Conversion/Storage

Materials and Devices

Wire + Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)

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The two systems (each consisting of a

six-axis robot arm, a welding power

source, a wire feeder, & a controller) can

run separately or simultaneously.

• WAAM process

─ Near-net shape fabrication

─ Inexpensive system setup

─ Fabrication of multi-functional parts

─ Wide selection of wire fillers

─ High deposition rate (near 10 kg/h)

Dr. Kim recently received an NSF grant

($225,181) “Investigations into the

Design Rules for the Control of Wire Arc

Additive Manufacturing”

• Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Chosun University & Korea Institute of

Industrial Technology (KITECH), Korea (Dr. Duckbong Kim, MET)

• In Summer 2019, Dr. Kim was selected to participate in the Department of Energy’s

(DOE) Visiting Faculty Program ‐ Faculty program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

(ORNL)-Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF).

Development of Feedstock Powders for Next-Generation Additive Manufacturing

• “High Performance Laboratory-Scale Gas Atomizer for Materials and Coatings

Research,” Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), Office

of Naval Research, $315,000

─ Only a few institutions (Ames Laboratory, etc.) in the US own laboratory-scale gas

atomization facilities.

─ Powder-based AM technologies for metal printing: powder bed fusion (PBF),

directed energy deposition (DED), and binder jetting

─ Most AM applications rely on existing feedstock materials, which have not been

designed/optimized for AM.

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A similar atomizer recently installed at the Royce Translational Centre (RTC) in

Sheffield, UK

Advanced Robotics and Controls

• Determine if sensors can be used to record

force and wear data, which in turn could

develop better surgical procedures and

implant designs in order to improve

surgical outcomes

• Explore various smart materials for energy

harvesting, sensing, and actuation

• Recipient of 2016 Young Investigator

Research Program (YIP) award from the Air

Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)

NIH ─ Integrated Load and Wear Sensing in

Total Knee Replacements (Dr. Steve Anton, ME)

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• The robot automatically communicates

pertinent data to a maintenance

team/control center/operator via a

dashboard.

• The robot has onboard intelligence and

learning capabilities, utilizing sensors

data fusion to detect abnormal patterns

and alert the appropriate

individual/group in real-time.

• It will also detect visible wear and tear

of a piece of equipment in the

substation by analyzing acquired

images.

Tennessee Valley

Authority (TVA)

awarded Dr. Ali Alouani

(ECE) $424,258 to

design and build an

intelligent robot for TVA

substation inspection.

Electric Vehicle Demonstration

• Research partners include the University of Texas at Austin, Nissan North America,

Lightning Systems, East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition, Seven States Power

Corporation, ChargePoint and the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency.

DOE ─ Developing an EV Demonstration Testbed

in the Upper Cumberland Region of Tennessee,

an Economy Distressed Rural Region (Dr.

Pingen Chen, ME)

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• “Developing an EV Demonstration Testbed in the

Upper Cumberland Region of Tennessee, an

Economy Distressed Rural Region,” DOE,

$1,559,686 Total (10/01/2019 - 12/31/2022)

• To develop a rural electric vehicle testbed to

demonstrate and evaluate the applications of

electric vehicles over a diverse range of activities

serving a rural and largely economically

distressed Upper Cumberland region.

Fuel Cell & Battery Research

• 2003 NSF CAREER Award recipient

• Dr. Zhu collaborated with Prof. Goodenough (2019 Nobel Prize Winner)

and co-authored three papers with Prof. Goodenough.

DOE ─ Development and Validation of New

Contact Materials for SOFC Application (Dr.

Jiahong Zhu, ME)

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• A collaborative research effort between

TTU, FuelCell Energy (Danbury, CT), and

Saint-Gobain Research North

(Northborough, MA) focuses on developing

and validating the low-cost, highly-durable,

spinel-based material for SOFC cathode-

side contact application utilizing a unique

environmentally-assisted reactive sintering

process to lower the sintering temperature.

High-Temperature Coating Research

• “Development of Corrosion- and Erosion-Resistant Coatings for

Advanced Ultra-Supercritical Materials,” DOE, $1,250,754 Total

(10/01/2019-03/31/2021)

• Collaborating with Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,

Siemens, & Eastern Plating

• Focusing on enhancing both corrosion and erosion properties of the

electro-codeposited coatings for high-pressure (HP) steam turbine

blades in advanced ultra-supercritical (A-USC) power plants that will operate at temperatures and pressures up to 760°C (1400°F) and 35

MPa (5000 psi)

Manufacturing of novel protective

coatings via vapor phase deposition

and electro-codeposition for gas

turbine engine & other high

temperature applications

(Dr. Ying Zhang, CMR)

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Ni+CrAlY Coating

Industrial Assessment Center (IAC)

• Assisting small to medium-sized manufacturers to become more energy efficient (233

assessments have been performed for companies in and around Tennessee, with $9.9

million in implemented savings)

• Instructing engineering students in best practices of industrial energy efficiency to

prepare them for the workforce (182 students have participated in the IAC with 58

receiving DOE certification in the program)

• The IAC was honored by the DOE with the 2018 Center of Excellence Award, and was

named as the center of the year among 28 centers nation-wide.

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IAC ― Established in the CMR in 2006, led by Dr. Glenn Cunningham

Manufacturing-Related Education Activities

• Dr. Ismail Fidan (MET) – “NSF AM-WATCH: Additive Manufacturing –

Workforce Advancement Training Coalition and Hub”

− To bridge the gap between industry needs and future workforce

skills via the enhancement of high school and community college

curriculum with additive manufacturing practices

• Dr. Mohamed Mahmoud and Dr. Syed Hasan (ECE) – NSF-REU site

NSF-REU Site

(Dr. Mohamed Mahmoud and Dr. Syed Hasan, ECE) NSF AM-WATCH (Dr. Ismail Fidan, MET)

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State-of-the-Art Facilities for Research, Education & Outreach

• Rigaku Ultima IV X-ray diffractometer (XRD)

• Zygo 3D optical profilometer

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New Hitachi ultra-high-resolution Scanning Electron

Microscope (SEM) recently installed in CMR’s

materials lab

The first SU-7000 received by

a university in North America!Resolution: 0.9nm