Contact the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Managing faculty
Advanced Composite Materials Laboratory
An NAU Mechanical Engineering lab
The Advanced Composite Materials Laboratory is an instructional and research facility equipped for the fabrication, testing, and analysis of composite materials. The lab provides support for funded research projects related to composite materials and also for a laboratory course on composite materials characterization (ME 581).
Additional information
Research Accordion Open
Research activities in the lab are primarily focused on the characterization of advanced composite materials, including the manufacturing and testing of verification samples. Additionally, some recent research activities involve the characterization of multifunctional carbon fiber based composites with structural and power storage capability. These materials are intended for use in the development of terrestrial and space structures to minimize deadweight of structural components, maximize useful volume, and increase lifecycle. Structural power storage can lead to reduction in size and weight of the power plant/batteries necessary to operate these structures, while optimizing their charge-discharge cycles through supply of energy from the structural components during high power demanding maneuvers.
Facility location: Building (69), Room 110 Accordion Closed
The manufacturing and testing equipment includes:
- 18″x18″, 850ºF hot press
- Large oven
- Specimen fabrication equipment
- 60,000 lb Instron universal testing machine
- Test fixtures for composites testing
Lab capabilities include:
- Specimen and prototype manufacturing: hand layup, high temperature/high pressure press, machining for specimens
- Testing facilites using a universal testing machine: standard tension tests, compression and shear properties, bending, sandwich panel properties
- Strain gage instrumentation and data acquisition equipment
- Microscopy: optical microscopy, with photomicrography and video imaging, image analysis for fiber and resin content
- Design and analysis capabilities: structural analysis of composite parts, composites design, finite element analysis using COSMOS/M, laminated plate analysis using in-house and commercially available software
Design and analysis capabilities include:
- Finite element and laminated plate analysis programs
- In-house developed methods and programs for fracture mechanics analysis