Advanced Manufacturing Technologies – Innovations in Design, Materials, Processes and Systems
Any item around us, any product that we use, see and interact during our daily life is the result of various design and manufacturing
operations. Cars, cell phones, TVs, shoes, pens, etc. — they have been
all gone through a design and manufacturing process. In order to
improve lives, health and wealth of people and next generations,
products are changed/improved continuously, and what is more pressing
is that this change has been occurring more often as compared to 10 or
20 years ago. Every month we see a different cell phone model, every six
months we see better, cheaper, greater computers, every year we see
newer, fancier, more powerful cars, etc.As a result, the activities (Design, Materials and Manufacturing)
to make these frequent and ever-ending changes in a healthier, greener
and sustainable manner also need to be improved continuously.
At
VCU, one of our research interests is on the development of innovative
manufacturing processes, particularly oriented towards mobility issues
(Automotive, Aircraft, Trucks, etc). One of the greatest challenges in
the transportation industry and vehicles is the achievement of sustainable mobility. What it is means that (1) the vehicles produced should be lighter, consume less fuel, and discharge near-zero hazardous gases, (2) the manufacturing process used to produce these vehicles should spend less energy, discharge near-zero harmful by-products, and be leaner. 
For
example, we develop novel material forming processes to enable shaping
lightweight materials (such as Aluminum and Magnesium, which are 2-5
times lighter than steel) into complex forms using elevated heating,
electromagnetic field forces, ultrasonic vibrations, etc. We also
address the material behavior and contact (friction) modeling issues in
addition to developing optimal process windows using
computer-aided-engineering techniques and software.
Another research topic in this area is based on approaching the very same problem (sustainable mobility) from another angle: making the power generation in vehicles cleaner via fuel cells and other alternative energy generation technologies. We focus on the design and manufacturability issues of fuel cell systems. Material and manufacturing cost of the existing fuel cell technology is one of the few barriers to embrace it in our daily lives. We developed novel manufacturing processes to make fuel cell components cheaper and more robust. Micro-manufacturing processes based on (1) hybrid internal pressure forming and in-process bonding, (2) nano-micro powder forming are developed by VCU faculty (Dr. Koc). We continue to work on these and other alternative techniques to enable fuel cells to become a part of our cars, homes and work places sooner than predicted today.
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A novel method of fabricating bipolar plates using internal pressure assisted embossing and mechanical joining processes; (a) two sheet blanks are clamped between upper and lower die having the intricate shape with micro-channels, (b) Simultaneous (or sequential) application of internal hydraulic pressure between the sheet blanks and die movement enable the deformation of sheet blanks into upper and lower dies completely and defect free, (c) the resulting bipolar plate has the micro-channels on both sides serving as anode and cathode in the fuel cell and closed channels for water cooling at the middle.
| Finite element analysis (FEA) results of a computer simulation modeling the fabrication of bipolar plates using the proposed hybrid internal pressure assisted embossing and mechanical joining process; (0) sheet blanks are placed between upper and lower dies, edges are clamped, (1, 2) Simultaneous (or sequential) application of hydraulic pressure between two sheet blanks and die movement deform the sheet blanks into the die shapes, (3, 4) Upper and lower dies are further moved against each other to generate the mechanical joint between contacting surfaces of sheet blanks to form the final shape of the bipolar plate. Sequence and amount of die movements and internal pressure can be adjusted to results in defect free bipolar plates. |  |
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Single and small batch stack configurations for performance testing of bipolar plates |
Finally, our research also addresses the design aspects by adopting an interdisciplinary and experience-based approach. We collaborate with art and business schools to develop design process techniques to enable rapid, innovative, flexible, modular, lighter and inexpensive products.