Supporting Technologies and Facilities

Nondestructive Evaluation

• Damage assessment
  
• Isolated flaw assessment
  
• Materials characterization
  
• Processing and component assessment
  
• Capabilities
  
  • ultrasonics
    
  • stress measurement
    
  • electromagnetics
    
  • magnetics
    
  • radioisotope and radiation
    
  • applications
    
  • thermography
    
  • acoustic emission
    

Quality Assurance and Quality Control Program

• DOD/NASA
  
  • MIL-Q-9858A
    
  • NASA-NHB5300.4
    
  • MIL-I-45208A
    

• Nuclear Quality Assurance
  
  • 10CFR50, Appendix B
    
  • ANSI Standard N45.2 1977
    
  • ANSI/ASME NQA-1-1986
    
  • 10CFR, Part 21
    

• Other contractually imposed requirements

Machine Shop

• 14,000 square feet of climate-controlled space
  
• One-of-a-kind prototype production
  
• Facilities
  
  • welding
    
  • heat-treating
    
  • machining
    

Library Facilities

• 90,000 books and periodicals
  
• 150,000 documents and technical reports
  
• Registered with NASA and DTIC
  
• Search capabilities, including DIALOG Information Services, Inc., and Systems Development Corp., ORBIT
  
• Interlibrary loan

Computer Facilities

The Computer and Telecommunications Center (CTC) at Southwest Research Institute supports an Institute-wide network and operates a VAX 8700 and an IBM 4381-P13 mainframe computer. The network consists of a fiber optic token passing ring that links local area networks in each of the operating divisions. The network supports TCP/IP, DECnet, SNA, and Banyan protocols for file transfers, terminal sessions, electronic mail, and resource sharing. The CTC supports connections to a number of external networks including SESQUInet, ESnet, and THEnet, among many others. Researchers routinely use the network to access Cray supercomputers at the Minnesota Supercomputer Center, the MPA in Stuttgart, Germany, and several government facilities, including BRL, Los Alamos, and NASA. The Mechanical Engineering Division computer center consists of 14 HP 9000/700 class workstations, a DEC Alpha OpenVMS system, and more than 150 personal computers. Computers are connected via an ethernet local area network. Two Banyan and a Windows/NT server are used for resource sharing and electronic mail. PATRAN, ABAQUS, NASTRAN, ProEngineer, RASNA, Mathematica, and several in-house codes are used to solve a wide range of engineering problems.

Using advanced computing hardware and UNIX workstations, SwRI researchers study the probabilistic behavior of complex structures such as this critical turbine blade in the space shuttle main engine.

Short Courses

Short courses are conducted in such areas as:

• Orbital debris in space
  
• Probabilistic structural analysis methods
  
• Penetration mechanics
  
• Scale modeling in engineering dynamics
  

Other Brochures

Publications are available on a variety of activities, including:

• Contributions to the literature
  
• Corrosion prevention and control
  
• Failure analysis and prevention
  
• Fracture mechanics
  
• Gas turbine technology
  
• Loss prevention and safety engineering
  
• Materials sciences
  
• Offshore engineering
  
• Penetrating the puzzles of ballistics
  
• Polymer engineering
  
• Steam turbine technology
  
• Structural design for physical security
  
• Structural durability
  
• Tubular products
  
• Verification testing of gate valves

For more information on materials and structures, contact Dr. Ben H. Thacker, Mechanical Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, Phone (210) 522-3896, Fax (210) 522-6965.

Materials and Structures Brochure
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