Most of the experimental work conducted within the scope of brazing R&D activities is devoted to a study of the fundamentals of brazing (heat transfer, fluid flow, materials science aspects, manufacturing aspects, etc.) The research is conducted in several Center for Manufacturing laboratories at the College of Engineering. Some work, particularly that involving electron microscopy (SEM, TEM), is also conducted in the Electron Microscopy Facility and Light Metal Laboratory at the Chemical and Materials Engineering Department of the College of Engineering.

Schematic of time/space/temperature evolution of a molten surface (a brazing sheet)

A portion of the experimental activities has been conducted in cooperation with the High Temperature Materials Laboratory at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory through HTML Project # U2001-006. This research is sponsored by the Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Transportation Technologies, as part of the High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725. These activities involve, for example, EPMA Micro super probe studies of diffusion processes at the atomic level.

The sponsors of this research include:

• National Science Foundation
• U.S. Department of Energy
• Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems
• Commonwealth Aluminum
• CONCAST Inc.