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A $243,526 grant from the National Science Foundation is establishing a engineering laboratory that will open up new learning opportunities in several areas for mechanical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and mathematics students.
A research team of five professors from the three academic departments will work together to establish student and faculty research and class projects through the lab, which will feature cutting-edge digital image correlation technology, which uses computers and cameras to measure how surfaces react to loads, as well as other equipment for studying physical strains on structures and objects.
The grant comes on the heels of a $213,610 National Science Foundation award that will enhance bioengineering research and classroom learning opportunities for students, and is expected to help Lafayette build on its excellent record of attracting and retaining outstanding women students in mechanical engineering.
Initially, the digital imaging technique will be used in six engineering courses. As new research areas are explored, six more courses may benefit, according to Stephen Kurtz, assistant professor of civil engineering, who led the effort to obtain the grant. The new equipment also will provide a high-quality research experience in structural engineering for 10 to 15 Lafayette students.
The diverse, yet well-linked expertise of the professors will facilitate a broad range of research on stresses in structural steel, timber, reinforced concrete, and fiber-reinforced polymer materials; corrugated paper containers; and sport equipment. The interdisciplinary makeup of the research team offers the potential to extend new techniques into disciplines outside engineering. The faculty are Kurtz; Ed Saliklis, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering; Steve Nesbit, associate professor and head of mechanical engineering; Jeffrey Helm, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; and Rob Root, associate professor of mathematics.
“This mobilizes an emerging experimental technique for stress analysis, applying it to problems in civil engineering,” says Kurtz. “This project will result in better understanding of the seismic performance of steel and timber connections. It will further the state of the art for the strengthening of concrete structures, using fiber-reinforced polymer materials. It will enable fundamental understanding of the constitutive behavior of wood and paper products. Finally, the viability of digital image correlation for higher-speed problems, such as mechanical vibrations, will be evaluated.”
Lafayette professors will share information about the benefits of digital image correlation in teaching through publications and conference presentations. In addition, the structural testing facility may serve as a blueprint of versatile, cost-effective, and nimble laboratory design for colleges.
Kurtz’s areas of expertise for the project are the structural design of steel and concrete structures, the strengthening of concrete structures with advanced composite materials, concrete anchorages, and cementitious composite materials. He received four teaching awards prior to joining the Lafayette faculty last school year, when he mentored class of 2003 civil engineering majors David Donovan (Conshohocken, Pa.), Jeremy Lucas (Peckville, Pa.), and Fernando Luna (Managua, Nicaragua) in intensive research projects. His publications include a paper coauthored with Saliklis and civil engineering major Sandra Furnbach ’03 (Matawan, N.J.) that was presented at the Eighth International Conference on Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture last May in Halkidiki, Greece. It also has been accepted for publication in the conference proceedings.
A former board member of the Missouri Chapter of the American Concrete Institute, Kurtz co-developed the QuickFrame commercial structural optimization software. He earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and civil & environmental engineering (1993) and a master’s (1999) and Ph.D. (2000) in structural engineering from Rutgers University. He is a former construction engineer at Turner Construction Company, Philadelphia.
Saliklis, in addition to his paper with Kurtz and Furnbach, has coauthored papers with civil engineering majors Amy Mussen ’00 (Keyser, Wyo.), in Wood and Fiber Science, and Boris Tokyay ’01 (Istanbul, Turkey), submitted to Journal of Pulp and Paper Science. (Tokyay also earned a degree in international economics and commerce and is pursuing a master’s of engineering at MIT.) He has published extensively on the constitutive modeling of wood pulp products.
Saliklis has registered patents in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Japan. He earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from University of Illinois-Chicago (1984), Syracuse University (1988), and University of Wisconsin-Madison (1992), respectively. He is a former design engineer at Chicago Bridge & Iron and FLAD and Assoc., and a former research engineer with the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Products Lab.
Nesbit’s areas of expertise for the project are video-based data acquisition, kinematic and dynamic analysis, and computer modeling for applications in biomechanics and sports science. He conducted a study for the United States Golf Association on how altering certain parameters affects the swing of a golfer. In addition to several publications from 1994-2003, the study led to development of a biomechanics laboratory at the USGA Testing and Research Facility and creation of an accurate and variable full-body computer model of a golfer.
Nesbit has involved more than a dozen Lafayette students in his research, most of whom have earned master’s degrees after co-authoring a journal and/or conference paper with him. Seven of the students joined him as a patent co-inventor. His recent publications include a paper presented to the International Association of Science and Technology for Development’s International Conference on Modeling and Simulation and a coauthored article accepted for upcoming publication by the Journal for Engineering Education.
In addition to his work with the USGA, Nesbit’s consulting and research areas have included patent infringement in computer modeling and analysis of exercise equipment and human athletic motion, automated manufacturing, specific alloys, robotics, and mechanisms/engines.
A member of the Lafayette faculty since 1990, Nesbit earned his bachelor’s (cum laude), master’s, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University in 1982, 1985, and 1988, respectively.
Helm’s area of expertise for the project is digital image correlation for experimental stress analysis. He is mentoring mechanical engineering major Jeremy Deaner ’04 (Fitchburg, Wis.) in a year-long research project in digital image correlation.
Helm has over a decade of experience in this field. At the University of South Carolina, he developed one of the first practical three-dimensional image correlation systems, and his work has resulted in significant increases in the speed and accuracy of both the two-dimensional and three-dimensional image correlation methods. He has applied the technique to a variety of problems, ranging from strain measurements in human tissue to deformation measurements on the pressurized fuselage of a commercial jet. His work has received certificates of recognition from NASA Langley and intellectual property awards from the University of South Carolina. Helm has worked with a variety of government, academic and industrial organizations applying image correlation to their needs.
Before joining Lafayette’s faculty last fall, Helm earned bachelor’s (1992), master’s (1995), and doctoral (1999) degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of South Carolina, where he received a dean’s award for excellence in graduate study.
Root’s areas of expertise for the project are the application of differential equations, numerical analysis, statistics, and image processing to problems in elasticity, biomechanics, and kinematics, as well as experiential learning. His publications include several journal articles coauthored with Lafayette students, including one published last year in the journal Comparative Biochemistry & Physiology. Through National Science Foundation support and other funding, the paper also was presented last year at a conference held by the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology.
Root has worked with a number of students on research related to the geometry of fish in motion, for which he and another researcher received an Office of Naval Research Domestic Research Grant. He also has been a leader within the mathematics field in incorporating service-learning at local charities and nonprofits into curriculum. He coauthored a paper on the topic published by The American Statistician, which he presented last year at the Sixth Annual International Conference on the Teaching of Statistics in Capetown, South Africa.
A member of Lafayette’s faculty since 1991, Root earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and in science, technology & society from Vassar College (1979), a master’s in mathematics from Johns Hopkins University (1980), and a Ph.D. in mathematical sciences from University of Delaware (1988). He is a former systems engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corp.