LETU Announces Big Grants for Materials Joining Research

LONGVIEW — LeTourneau University’s School of Engineering has received some $560,000 under three separate grants — one new, one current, and one recently completed. LETU got $250,125 in grant funding from the Federal Highway Administration for a two-year research project on welding on modern bridges. That grant is in addition to a current $180,000 grant.

“Two of our master’s degree students, as well as about ten undergraduates will be working on this study aimed at using innovative welding technologies for designing and manufacturing future bridges that would last over 100 years” said Dr. Yoni Adonyi, LETU’s welding/materials joining engineering program coordinator. “Our partners from industry remain the Navy Surface Warfare Center, as well as the American Iron and Steel Institute, and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. We are looking at high-frequency, friction stir and thermal stir welding applied to joining high strength- and corrosion resistant steels.”

Additionally, the university just completed a $129,000 grant from the II-VI Foundation that funded the development of new technology for microwave welding to join bismuth telluride to copper for building thermo-electric generators. “This breakthrough technology will be used for waste energy reclamation such as automobile exhaust heat pumping energy to the battery,” said Dr. Seung Kim, assistant professor in electrical engineering and co-investigator with Dr. Adonyi. A patent application is in the works for this new, no-plasma discharge, and closed-loop controlled microwave welder prototype.