UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 12, Page 9
November 21, 1991
U.D., Japan in joint venture

     Three engineering faculty members have been awarded a $127,479
grant by the International Joint Research Division of the New
Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in
Japan.
     Investigating "The Effect of the Interface on Microfracture
Mechanisms for Fiber-Toughened Ceramic-Matrix Composites" will be
Tsu-Wei Chou, Jerzy L. Nowinski Professor of Mechanical
Engineering; R. Byron Pipes, University provost and Robert L.
Spencer Professor of Engineering; and Azar Parvizi-Majidi,
associate professor of mechanical engineering.
     According to Chou, the objectives of the three-year project
involve analytical modeling of the thermomechanical behavior of
single and multiple fiber-reinforced glass-ceramic composites and
study of the fracture mechanisms of these materials at ambient and
elevated temperatures.
     NEDO, a semi-governmental agency supervised by Japan's
Ministry of International Trade and Industry, established its
International Joint Research Program in 1988. The program "aims to
promote creative, basic research through international cooperation
and, in the process, help improve the international standard of
science and technology while contributing to the advancement of
international exchange."
     During the past four years, nearly 200 applications have been
submitted but only about two dozen have been selected for funding,
Chou said.
     In addition to the Center for Composite Materials, the three-
year project involves United Technologies Research Center in the
United State, the University of Tokyo, Nippon Carbon and the
Institute for Industrial Science in Japan.
     "We are very pleased to have this international and
interdisciplinary program a the Center for Composite Materials,"
Chow said.