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Geathers Wins First in SES and SEM Competitions

11/06/2014

Geathers

Mechanical Engineering PhD candidate, Jason Geathers, has had a “winning streak” after competing in two separate competitions led by the Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM) and the Society of Engineering Science (SES).

Geathers took first place in the 2014 SEM International Student Competition, which recognizes vanguard accomplishments in technical communication and experimental mechanics. The competition took place in the beginning of June during the SEM Annual Conference & Exposition on Experimental & Applied Mechanics held in Greenville, South Carolina.

At the SES Annual Technical Meeting hosted in October by Purdue University, Geathers had similar success, winning first place in their student competition as well. SES as an organization promotes the meshing of technical fields including mathematics, science, and engineering.

Geathers’ primary interest lies within the small-scale examination of deformation mechanisms that are active in structural materials during very high cycle fatigue. Specifically, Geathers examines damage accumulation and propagation in titanium alloys subjected to many millions of loading cycles of small amplitude.  Geathers’ experiments combine a unique combination of ultrasonic fatigue inside of a scanning electron microscope, as well as electron backscatter diffraction, focused ion beam milling, and optical metrologies for deformation tracking.

An article describing the findings was recently published by the International Journal of Fatigue under the title “Investigating Environmental Effects on Small Fatigue Crack Growth in Ti-6242S Using Combined Ultrasonic Fatigue and Scanning Electron Microscopy.” 

Geathers is expanding upon a legacy that began in Department of Mechanical Engineering, as he received both his Bachelors of Science and his Masters from the department. Currently, he works in the Advanced Materials and Mechanics Laboratory under the supervision of Samantha Daly, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.