8/18/2010
The Industrial Research Institute (IRI), in partnership with the National Science Foundation, has awarded $500,000 to Philippe H. Geubelle and his research team at Illinois for “Multiscale Modeling and Assessment of Interfacial Adhesion Failure in Polymeric Coatings and Multilayered Devices.”
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The Industrial Research Institute (IRI), in partnership with the National Science Foundation, has awarded $500,000 to Philippe H. Geubelle and his research team at Illinois for “Multiscale Modeling and Assessment of Interfacial Adhesion Failure in Polymeric Coatings and Multilayered Devices.”
Geubelle, lead investigator for the project, is a professor and associate head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and a researcher at the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology. Other project investigators include Nancy R. Sottos, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and The Beckman Institute, and John Kieffer, Materials Science and Engineering Department, University of Michigan.
In modern devices, adhesives and coatings must not only maintain physical integrity, they must also provide specific function(s)—the interface must not provide a barrier to electrical or thermal continuity in some devices, or to chemical diffusion or osmosis in others.
“The goal of this project is to formulate and implement a reliable multiscale modeling tool that can ultimately be used for material design by allowing engineers to select the polymer chemistry that is best suited for a given substrate system,” Geubelle explained. “Next generation models need to predict adhesive strength and functional properties—electrical, thermal, chemical conductivity—and they need to predict the factors that will cause these properties to vary over the life of the device. Such models can facilitate development of accelerated life tests and significantly reduce both the cost and the time required to develop new products.”
The Industrial Research Institute is an organization of some 200 industrial and service companies having common interest in the effective management of technological innovation. IRI developed a program to bring together leaders in industrial science to identify pre-competitive fundamental research requirements that will ultimately have a direct effect on the success of American industry.
As part of an intensive process, an IRI advisory panel conducted background research among a diverse industry cross section of IRI member organizations to identify issues and challenges industries face in which targeted academic research might identify possible solutions. Ultimately, the IRI advisory panel focused attention on two topics: Renewable Energy related challenges and Materials
“In defining these questions and connecting industry to academia in the search for adhesion and coating solutions, the Industry-Defined Fundamental Research program promises to have a measurable effect,” stated IRI president Edward Bernstein. “We expect this research will lead directly to a fundamental understanding of problems common across industry, the solution of which will strengthen industry’s competitiveness and open new markets.”
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded IRI a $1.2 million grant to pilot the Industry-Defined Fundamental Research program. The program intends to allow participating companies to influence a scientific research agenda, in a pre-competitive space, by defining key questions and then partnering with universities and companies to explore them.
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Contact: Philippe Geubelle, Department of Aerospace Engineering, 217/ 244-7648.
Michele Taussig, Industrial Research Institute, 703/647-2588.
If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.