{"427521":{"#nid":"427521","#data":{"type":"news","title":"NSF CAREER Grant launches important research for Julian Rimoli","body":[{"value":"\u003Ctable width=\u0022200\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\u0022rtecenter\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Dr. Julian Rimoli is a 2015 recipient of the NSF CAREER\u0026nbsp;award\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the root of Dr. Julian Rimoli\u2019s recently awarded NSF CAREER grant is a fundamental engineering conundrum known to car mechanics and rocket scientists alike:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe hotter an engine runs, the more efficiently it will work. The problem is, you can\u2019t burn as hot as you want because it degrades the mechanical properties of your components. You can protect critical parts with thermal barrier coatings but the problem is, mechanically, they tend to crack and wear off. Ideally, we would like to have materials that are great both thermally and mechanically.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn his NSF proposal, \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/awardsearch\/showAward?AWD_ID=1454104\u0022\u003EModeling Materials across the Length Scales to Achieve Enhanced Thermomechanical Properties\u003C\/a\u003E\u201d Rimoli proposes a process for tackling that problem.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe 5-year, $500,000 grant will allow him to create models and computational capabilities for next-generation materials that have improved thermomechanical performance \u2013 a critical component in everything from aircraft turbines to space capsules.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSometimes this isn\u2019t necessarily about something failing, but about making sure a material lasts, so that you can reduce the cost of maintenance and the cost of interruptions,\u201d he noted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt is not a new subject for the Goizuetta Professor, who joined the GT-AE faculty after finishing his post-doctoral work at MIT in\u0026nbsp; 2011.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor the past couple of years, Rimoli and his GT-AE colleague, Dr. Mitchell Walker, have been collaborating on the problem of plasma-materials interaction. Rimoli\u2019s focus on this project has been the thermomechanical stresses that erode the channel walls of Hall Effect thrusters, a component of many small plasma-powered satellites.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen you send a satellite into space, generally, you\u2019re not going to see it again, so you want the components to last as long as possible,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022175\u0022 border=\u00222\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u002222\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAbout the\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENSF\u0026nbsp;CAREER award\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe CAREER award is the National Science Foundation\u0027s most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Grantees receive up to five years of funding to pursue research.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIn addition to Dr. Rimoli, four other Georgia Tech faculty were chosen to receive CAREER awards -- all of them from the Stewart School of Industrial \u0026amp; Systems Engineering: Dr. Turgay Ayer, Dr. David Goldberg, Dr. Sebastian Pokutta,\u0026nbsp; and Dr. Enlu Zhou. Find out\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/news\/five-gt-engineers-receive-nsf-career-awards\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Emore.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSo if we could design the microstructure of the material on those components in such a way as to extend their lifetime, we could extend the operation of those satellites\u2014and anything else that is subject to the same kind of stresses.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe promise of having such a huge impact on the discipline is motivating to Rimoli, but he doesn\u2019t like getting ahead of himself.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s a big leap to extrapolate what I\u2019m doing to the actual application,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEventually, the idea is to grade the microstructure of thermal barrier coatings to decrease their thermal stresses, thus making them less prone to failure. We have to do the basic science, first, to understand the best way to do it.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWhat is the basic science?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA lot is already known about how a material\u2019s microstructure can affect its thermal and mechanical properties \u2013 its ability to conduct heat, bear stresses, etc. For instance, as the characteristic length-scale of a material\u2019s microstructure is decreased or increased, its yield stress and thermal conductivity will also change.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo take it a step further: the thermal and mechanical problems are not decoupled, meaning that one problem affects the other. That is, as the size of the microstructure within a material is changed, its thermomechanical response will change as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSo I\u2019m studying how the length-scale not only affects the material\u2019s mechanical and thermal properties, but how you can modify the microstructure in such a way that when you subject the material to certain thermal and mechanical boundary conditions, you can also vary the temperature and stress distribution inside the material, making it less prone to failure.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPut it another way: the thermal and mechanical properties are coupled. If a material whose substructures have varying length-scales is heated, it will try to expand in different ways, and that will cause different stresses internally.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis back-and-forth is important to study so we can find a way to predict when and where cracks will form, the effect that length-scale and thermal cracks have on macroscopic material strength, thermal conductivity, and thermal expansion.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMuch of Rimoli\u2019s research is done on computers, where he is developing algorithms for computing the thermomechanical properties of different materials at the macro and micro scales.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe physics, the equations that explain things are different at different scales, and that creates some challenges,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf we want to do real-life applications, we need to do our calculations at the macroscopic scale, but if you want to predict how a material really behaves, you need to look at it on a microscopic scale. We propose a way to link those two scales in such a way that we can predict material behavior for practical problems.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe results will lay a rich foundation for sustained research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cUltimately, we should begin to be able to answer some important questions,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThings like: How does grain size and grain size distribution affect the formation of thermal cracks for the steady state and dynamic thermomechanical problem? In the latter case, how is the nucleation of thermal cracks affected by applied temperature rates and length scale?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd many more.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EFocusing on \u0027next-gen\u0027 aerospace engineers\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022250\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003ERimoli and graduate student Jean-Baptiste Bouquet\u003C\/em\u003E.\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERimoli expects to be exploring these questions for some years to come. Under the auspices of his NSF\u0026nbsp;proposal, others will follow in his footsteps.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe educational focus of Rimoli\u0027s NSF\u0026nbsp;grant focuses on encouraging Latinos to successfully pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers. To do this, Rimoli will establish an educational summer camp for Latinos in K-12 where they will be introduced to engineering and mechanics through an interactive, hands-on approach to learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf we want diverse students to pursue this field, we need to diversify the methods we use to teach them,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECentral to his effort will be the use of\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003Ean educational app that Rimoli created in 2013 to help his college-level students to gain an intuitive grasp of truss behavior. Since its release in early 2014, however,\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003ETruss Me!\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;has gained wide popularity with would-be engineers of all ages, from grade to graduate school, all around the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter designing a structure, students in the camp will have access to a 3D printer, where their idea will take physical shape and undergo testing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSo it basically has the whole engineering cycle: the design, the calculations, the manufacturing, and the testing,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is an introduction to engineering that they will not forget. And I believe many will want to continue.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs he utters these words, Rimoli becomes pensive. The projects he\u2019s described are not just pieces of a successful grant application; collectively, they are the things that motivate him as an academic, a researcher, and an educator.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in rich microstructures and how they can influence the engineering performance of materials, and this is all about those things,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBut it\u2019s also a problem that\u2019s coupled \u2013 not just thermo, not just mechanical \u2013 and it needs to be studied on different scales \u2013 microscopic to macroscopic. The fact that I will be able to work in this kind of problems is tremendously important. And the fact that I will be able to bring some of this to students who may not have ever considered engineering before \u2013 that, makes it\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003Eperfect.\u003C\/em\u003E\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFind out more about\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/rimoli.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDr. Julian Rimoli\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022500\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDr. Rimoli has been involved in STEM\u0026nbsp;outreach to under-represented groups for as long as he has been on the GT-AE faculty. He is seen here talking with parents at an outreach fair held last year at an Atlanta-area middle school. Under the auspices of his NSF grant, he will work with Georgia Tech\u0027s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC) and GO-STEM to establish a STEM summer camp for Latinos, K-12.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"At the root of Dr. Julian Rimoli\u2019s recently awarded NSF CAREER grant is a fundamental engineering conundrum known to car mechanics and rocket scientists alike."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-07-22 10:53:08","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:15","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-02-10T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-02-10T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"130061","name":"Julian Rimoli"},{"id":"7842","name":"NSF CAREER Award"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}