October 2008 Recruitment Meeting

October 2008 Recruitment Meeting

An industrial recruitment meeting was held on October 21 and 22^nd in Morgantown, WV to gain support for the Center for the Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI), a proposed NSF Sponsored I/UCRC. During the meeting, a group of industry representatives met with WVU, RU and NSF to learn more about CICI’s operation, benefits to industry and preliminary research projects. Industry members evaluated the proposed research and narrowed the proposed projects down to a list that would allow for both short term and long-term benefits to both the member companies and the industry as a whole.

During the meeting, several presentations were made outlining the vision, capabilities and the NSF perspective of CICI.

Vision of the Proposed Center

WVU Capabilities

Rutgers Capabilities

NSF Perspective

A wide range of R&D projects are being considered for implementation. For the start-up of CICI, the following projects are at the forefront:

1. Manufacture, design and implementation of flat panels and structural shapes,

2. FRP panels that can withstand blast, fire and cutting,

3. Strength, fatigue-life and durability of composites,

4. Nondestructive evaluation of FRP composites using IRT and GPR techniques,

5. Resin design for fire safety requirements

6. Hybrid organic/inorganic polymer FRP composites for improving fire resistance of structural members.

Additional R&D work is being considered as a part of CICI's development.