Technical Presentation: Room-Temperature Electrochemical Healing of Structural Materials
Dr. James H. Pikul
Leon and Elizabeth Janssen Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Presented to the Eastern Virginia Chapter of ASM International on October 18, 2023
About the Presentation:
Healing structural metals has long required high temperature techniques that are energy expensive and result in cracking in many nickel and aluminum alloys. We show that we can overcome this by repairing metal at room temperature using selective electrochemical deposition. We combine theory and experiments to predict the fracture mode of healed samples and the possibility of achieving 100% recovery of tensile strength.
The insights of this model allow us to demonstrate the healing of hard-to-weld alloys, aluminum 2024 and aluminum 7075, with 85% and 100% recovery of tensile strength respectively. This design strategy also allows us to demonstrate full recovery of tensile strength in the 3D printed cellular structures. This work establishes a general framework for the room-temperature electrochemical healing of a variety of structural metallic materials. It opens the possibility of repairing metals, that are otherwise difficult to weld, in structures and robots to extend their operational life and to efficiently employ resources in energy-constrained systems and remote environments.
About our Presenter:
James Pikul is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his BS (2009), MS (2011), and PhD (2015) in Mechanical Science and Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Research Fellow and University of Illinois Carver Fellow. James recently moved to Wisconsin after being an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
His research group seeks to make transformative advances in energy storage, multifunctional materials, and robotics by understanding and exploiting nanoscale to macroscopic characteristics of electrochemistry and soft matter. He applies these advances to enable new robotic functionality, including adaptive shape-transformations, metal healing, and biomimetic power systems.
James is a Moore Inventor Fellow, Scialog Fellow, TMS Early Career Faculty Fellow, and has received the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award and the NSF CAREER Award. His research has generated significant interest in the popular media, having been featured in BBC, National Geographic, Wired, Scientific American, NBC news, Washington Post, and Newsweek, among others.