ME 7793: Manufacturing of Composites
Offered as Required

Credit Hours: 3-0-3
Prerequisites: ME 4793 or ME 4794 or AE 4793 or AE 4794 or CEE 4793 or CEE 4794 or CHE 4793 or CHE 4794 or PTFE 4793 or PTFE 4794.
Catalog Description:  Major manufacturing techniques of metal-ceramic and polymer-matrix composites. Modeling of processes with emphasis on fundamental mechanisms and effects. Crosslisted with AE, CHE, CEE, MSE, and PTFE 7793.
Textbook: Timothy G. Gutowski, Advanced Composites Manufacturing; John Wiley, 1997.
Instructors: Jack Lackey (ME), Jonathan Colton (ME), John Muzzy (ChE)
 
Goal: Advanced study of fundamental principles and mechanisms in composites processing

 
Prerequisites by topic:


Topics:

Section 1: Manufacturing of fibers and preforms for composites
- Weaving and braiding for cloths and 3-D preforms. Non-woven materials.
- Fiber coatings for interface control. Interface chemistry and physics.
Processing methods. Coatings for polymer, metal, ceramic and carbon composites.

 
Section 2: Layup and winding methods
- Prepreg manufacturing
- filament winding
- layup and consolidation methods

 
Section 3: Liquid infiltration processing
- Fundamentals: wetting; viscous flow in porous media; rheology of liquid polymers. Heat transfer.
- Injection molding methods for polymer matrix composites
- Pressure infiltration for metal matrix composites (including alloy solidification).

 
Section 4: Infiltration and pyrolysis processing
- Ceramic and carbon matrix precursor materials. Pyrolysis chemistry. Mass and volume yields.
- Polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) process. Evolution of pore and matrix structure. Process limits near full density.
- Chemical vapor infiltration(CVI) process. Process variations. Evolution of pore and matrix structure. Process limits near full density.

 
Section 5: Testing and Inspection
- Statistics and sampling.
- Density and dimension measurements.
- Optical methods- dye penetration and opacity.
- Ultrasonics.
- X-ray and neutron radiography.
- IR thermography.

Delivery mode (%):
Lecture 100
Laboratory
Supervised
Unsupervised
Discussion
Seminar
Independent Study
Demonstration
Other (specify)
Grading Scheme (%): 
Homework 30
Individual Projects
Group Projects
Exams 70
Other (specify)

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Revised July 2004