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New ballistics lab supports aerospace research
Wichita State University’s National Institute for
Aviation Research (NIAR) recently opened a new
Ballistics and Impact Dynamics Research Lab in the
former Britt Brown Arena at the Kansas Coliseum in
Wichita. The new lab, part of NIAR’s environmental
test labs, uses a custom ballistic firing device to pro-
pel 22-50 caliber rounds into components inside a
concrete containment building. The test is designed
to simulate the impact of a structural failure on the
aircraft. The lab, led by director Paul Jonas, aims to
better understand the dynamics of impact and ma-
terial performance.
“Traditional ballistic test ranges are hard to ac-
cess and provide little information to designers on
how to make products safer and more reliable,” says Jonas. “This lab couples the material
and analytical strengths of NIAR with a unique ability to capture data about the impact
event and how the material behaves under those conditions.”
The lab’s headquarters is a control tower built on the side of the former arena, which over-
looks and monitors all activities. Testing occurs within a heavily reinforced 25 × 25-ft con-
crete containment building designed to capture ballistic rounds and contain potential failure
of pressurized oxygen bottles. The containment tower can used for drop tests up to 35 ft.
High-speed cameras and data recording equipment are also essential elements of the lab.
Lab capabilities include the ability to accommodate various projectile styles including
tumbling rounds, over-pressure burst testing and high-risk testing, ballistic impact of ma-
terials or structure under load, ballistic protection and impact loading, tests of pressure
vessels and oxygen tanks, bonfire testing, and environmental testing. Rounds can be fired
from 25, 50, 75, and 100 ft. The lab is also planning to add bird strike and high-velocity pro-
jectile capabilities later this year. .
Atomic force microscope can detect individual virus
Laser physicists at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, discovered a
way to make atomic force microscope (AFM) probes 20 times more sensitive and capable
of detecting forces as small as the weight
of a single virus. The technique involves
using laser beams to cool a nanowire
probe to -265°C. The development could
be used to improve the resolution of
AFMs, advanced tools that measure
nanoscopic structures and tiny forces be-
tween molecules. AFMs achieve extraor-
dinary sensitivity measurements of
microscopic features by scanning a wire
probe over a surface. However, the
probes—around 500 times finer than a
human hair—are prone to vibration.
The team used a 200-nm-wide silver
gallium nanowire coated with gold as
the force sensor. The laser makes the
probe warp and move due to heat. However, the probe cannot be used while the laser
is on, as the laser effect overwhelms the sensitive probe. The laser must be turned off
and any measurements quickly made before the probe heats up within a few millisec-
onds. By making measurements over a number of heating and cooling cycles, an accu-
rate value can be determined. .
briefs
Researchers in the Department of
Chemistry and Department of
Physics at the University of North
Florida, Jacksonville, received a
grant from the National Science
Foundation’s Major
Research Instrumentation
program. Led by
chemistry professor
Christos Lampropoulos,
the team was awarded
more than $407,000 to
support the purchase of a
single-crystal x-ray
diffractometer, used to determine
the structure of small molecules
and macromolecules. It will allow
researchers to identify the
positions of atoms within the
molecular structure as well as
bonds between atoms and many
other details. .
Analytik Jena AG, Germany, a
manufacturer of analytical
measuring technology, will acquire
the Inductively Coupled Plasma
Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)
business of Bruker Corp. The
transaction is expected to close
this month. In 2013, Bruker
generated revenue of
approximately $12 million with its
ICP-MS business, which it acquired
from Varian Inc. in 2010. The global
ICP-MS market is expected to be
among the fastest growing
markets in the area of
spectroscopy with annual growth
rates between 5-8% over the next
five years. .
Bruker Corp., Billerica, Mass.,
acquired Vutara Inc., a supplier of
high-speed, 3D super-resolution
fluorescence microscopy for life
science applications. Vutara’s
estimated revenue for 2014 is
expected to be approximately
$2 million. Super-resolution
microscopes can break the optical
diffraction limit by an order of
magnitude, opening up research
opportunities in single-molecule,
cellular, and neurobiology
processes. .
ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES • SEPTEMBER 2014 10
TESTING CHARACTERIZATION
news
industry
Wichita State University’s National
Institute for Aviation Research
recently opened a new Ballistics and
Impact Dynamics Research Lab.
Courtesy of Wichita State.
Ph.D. students Giovanni Guccione (left) and
Harry Slatyer examine their gold-coated
nanowire probe in the Quantum Optics
Laboratory at Australian National University.