Providing materials engineering, mechanical engineering consulting, nondestructive testing, failure analysis, forensic engineering and related expertise to a wide variety of clients.

Led many projects related to the non-destructive testing of metals, ceramics, composites and polymers. Expertise and experience includes: Quantitative Nondestructive Testing -Quantitative nondestructive testing techniques including acoustic microscopy, thermography, photothermal imaging, ultrasonics, and conductivity measurements for inspecting and characterizing ceramics, composites, polymers and metals. Ultrasonics -Provided expertise in theory of acoustic wave propagation in isotropic and anisotropy materials, waves in bounded media, surface and plate waves, and scattering of waves. Conducted analytical and experimental research on wave propagation in anisotropic plates with application to material characterization and flaw detection in laminate composites. Utilized acoustic microscopy for process development and understanding of aluminum lithographic sheet, ceramic chip carriers, aerospace plate, spot welds, flash butt welds, and die castings. Obtained elastic moduli measurements of metal matrix composites, polymers, polymeric composites, ceramics, and aluminum alloys. Determined texture and degree of recrystallization in aluminum sheet using electromagnetic acoustic transducers. Detected inclusions in molten metal, particles in other liquids, cracks in forged wheels, and damage in composite materials. Utilized resonant techniques for determining quality of die castings. Specialized NDE Systems -Acoustic microscope. EMAT system for flash butt weld inspection. EMAT system for measuring texture in aluminum sheet. On-line delamination detector for clad aluminum. Precision C-scan system. Holographic system for NDE of composite materials. High temperature conductivity measurement system for in-situ monitoring of aging of aluminum alloys. System for detecting solid inclusions in a molten metal stream. Photoacoustic system for characterizing the thickness of anodized coatings. Laser generated and detected ultrasound for detecting rim cracks in forged wheels. Sensors and Measurement Systems -Developed software, hardware interfaces, sensors, and instrumentation for control, data acquisition, and analysis of automated tests. Instrumentation expertise -Lock in amplifiers, digitizers, voltmeters, strain gage amplifiers, frequency synthesizers, power supplies, impedance analyzers, multi-programmer, filters, counters, timers, and signal generators. Sensor expertise -strain gages, load cells, extensometers, pressure gages, LVDTs, encoders, RTDs, thermocouples, accelerometers, and data analysis and acquisition. Interface expertise -IEEE488, RS232, parallel, and custom. Thermal Techniques -Thermography of ceramic chip carriers for process development and thermal model verification. Thermography for detecting electrical shorts in ceramic chip carrier. Thermography and vibrothermography of composites for detecting delaminations.Characterization of anodized coatings using photoacoustic and photothermal techniques. Applied and Experimental Mechanics -Elasticity, plasticity, viscoelasticity, FEM, laminate theory, and continuum mechanics. Photoelasticity, strain gages, strain gage hole technique for measuring residual stress. Software and hardware for controlling and acquiring data from closed loop servo-hydraulic testing machine during fatigue tests of laminate composites. Thermal and dynamic analysis and tests of electronic packaging used in extreme environments.