Lehigh University, in partnership with The Ohio State University (Ohio State), has entered into a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) to develop novel structural materials for high-strength applications. The agreement provides up to $25 million over five years. The first installment of $3 million has been authorized by Congress.
The team’s proposal, “Lightweight High Entropy Metallic Alloy Discovery (LHEAD),” includes three basic science projects that seek to address the critical need for longer-lasting and more resilient alternative structural materials for use in advanced material systems such as hypersonic missiles. The first two projects aim to develop new generations of superalloys—high-strength materials that can function at extreme temperatures—and use recent advancements in solid-state materials processing to develop next-generation high-entropy metallic alloys for improved performance. In addition to alloy design, the team will also explore powder-based material processing, phase transformation pathways, atomic-resolution characterization, in-situ high-throughput mechanical testing, and additive manufacturing. The third project, rooted in Lehigh’s Nano/Human Interfaces (NHI) Presidential Engineering Research Initiative, will support the first two by providing participating researchers with unique resources to improve their communication, problem solving, and collaborative use of research instrumentation.
This Cooperative Agreement is the latest of many Lehigh collaborations with ARL, which have resulted in significant discoveries, papers in high-profile publications, award-winning poster submissions, and the placement of Lehigh students in prestigious fellowships. The LHEAD project is also a continuation of Lehigh’s strong partnership with Ohio State.
The LHEAD project was inspired in part by an earlier project, “Anti-Thermal Behavior of Materials: Reversing the Trends of Nature,” a collaboration between Lehigh and Carnegie Mellon University funded by a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation and led by Harmer. The W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company. One of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, the W. M. Keck Foundation supports outstanding science, engineering and medical research. The Foundation also supports undergraduate education and maintains a program within Southern California to support arts and culture, education, health and community service projects.
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