Please consider attending the following: MATERIALS ENGINEERING SEMINAR "Alignment of Platelet-Grain Ceramic Particles in Shear and Elongational Fluid Flows" By Andrew Schlup Purdue MSE Ph.D. Preliminary Exam Advisors: Professor Rodney W. Trice and Professor Jeffrey P. Youngblood ABSTRACT Particle alignment in ceramics is a desirable microstructure feature due to the ability to control the properties of the sintered ceramic part, including mechanical, electrical, and even optical properties. These material property improvements originate from anisotropy that is a result of particle alignment. There are several ways to achieve particle alignment in a polycrystalline ceramic, with the most common method being the utilization of shear and elongational fluid flows. When high aspect-ratio ceramic particles (rods or platelets) are suspended in a fluid and that suspension is subjected to shear or elongational flows, the ceramic particles will preferentially orient due to the velocity profile gradient of the suspension. Thus, understanding the velocity profiles are critical for understanding how particle alignment occurs and how to control it. The velocity profiles of both shear and elongational flow will be discussed, along with their respective equations. Additionally, the orientation dynamics of particles in shear and elongational flow will be explored, as well as the governing equations that describe the rotation and subsequent orientation of high aspect-ratio particles in the different types of fluid flows. Finally, different processing methods found in the literature for achieving shear and elongational flow of ceramic-platelet/fluid suspensions will be discussed. These methods include tape-casting, co-extrusion, and biaxial extensional flow. The ways in which these methods are performed are crucial to understanding how the shear and/or elongational flow is manifested in the fluid, how the flow can be controlled, and the effectiveness of the method to align ceramic platelets. Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2018 Time: 1:30 P.M. Place: ARMS 1021