October 14, 2011
As a PhD candidate under the advisement of Professor Ravi-Chandar in the Engineering Mechanics program at The University of Texas, Aaron Albrecht is developing a safety feature that could save the lives of thousands of troops abroad. Working on a project funded by The Office of Naval Research, Albrecht is using polyurea to improve blast protection on military vehicles, ships, and buildings. Polyurea is the rubbery substance often used as spray-in bed liner for pickup trucks. When a blast occurs, the polyurea would keep the military vehicle from blowing apart.
His curiosity and drive are deep rooted. After graduating with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of California Santa Barbara, he spent several years working as a process engineer on the space and missile propulsion team at Hitco Carbon Composites in Los Angeles, CA. It was there that he realized, that he was not satisfied in just building to the design – he wanted to know why.
“I thought I wanted to go graduate school while I was an undergraduate but decided to go work first,” Albrecht said. “But after I started working, I realized I was very interested in the ‘why.’ For example, on a rocket nozzle, there’s a specific profile and I wanted to know why. So I went back to school.”
As the son of University of Texas Psychology Professor Emeritus Duane G. Albrecht, Aaron Albrecht knew what a great school UT was. After deferring his admissions for one year to travel and volunteer across the world, he returned to his hometown to begin graduate school under the advisement of Professor K. Ravi-Chandar in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics.
“The strength of the engineering mechanics program was very attractive. Also, Dr. Ravi’s work seemed really interesting. He was exploding stuff and recording it on high-speed cameras,” Albrecht said. “My entire graduate school essay was about interest in blast protection. It was a perfect fit.”
Albrecht’s hard work is paying off. He was recently awarded two prestigious awards for his work with Dr. Ravi-Chandar.
In November 2010, he received a second place award for the research presentation he gave at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Vancouver, Canada. In his presentation, Albrecht focused on the Dynamic Tension Test he helped develop. This test would allow them to predict how polyurea behaves during blast loadings.
In June 2011, Albrecht received a third place award in the Society for Experimental Mechanics International Student Paper Presentation Competition in Uncasville, Connecticut. His presentation focused on the development of a Dynamic Membrane Deformation Test that would further the understanding of how polyurea behaves when used as a blast protective coating in military vehicles.
The need for increased blast protection is crucial to the safety of American troops.
“I came in at a time when things picked up – the field’s really amped up over the last ten years,” Albrecht said. “We don’t need more fighter planes or bigger bombs; we need armor protection for Improvised Explosion Devices (IED’s).”
Albrecht plans to graduate this spring.
View more photos of Albrecht's research experiments.
