This research demonstrated the usefulness of tomographic techniques for determining the physical properties of slurry suspensions. Of particular interest was the measurement of the viscosity of suspensions in complex liquids and modeling these. We undertook a long rage program that used two techniques, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasonic pulsed Doppler velocimetry. Our laboratory originally developed both of these for the measurement of viscosity of complex liquids and suspensions. We have shown that the relationship between shear viscosity and shear rate can be determined over a wide range of shear rates from a single measurement. We have also demonstrated these techniques for many non-Newtonian fluids which demonstrate highly shear thinning behavior. This technique was extended to determine the yield stress with systems of interacting particles. To model complex slurries that may be found in wastes applications, we have also used complex slurries that are found in industrial applications

The goal of this project is to develop a method for fabricating SiC-reinforced high-strength steel. We are developing a metal-matrix composite (MMC) in which SiC fibers are be embedded within a metal matrix of steel, with adequate interfacial bonding to deliver the full benefit of the tensile strength of the SiC fibers in the composite.