Wednesday, May 13^th
ASM SCV Chapter Technical Meeting

Awards Night; ASM Trustee Speaker

Location
Michael's at Shoreline
2960 Shoreline Boulevard
Mountain View
(650) 964-1014

Time
5:30 pm Social/Networking
6:15 pm Dinner
7:15 pm Talks

Dinner Cost
ASM Members $20
Students $10
Guests $25

Buffet Dinner

Reservation deadline is 1pm on Tuesday, May 12th

About the Topic

Aircraft wheels and brakes are a demanding application for engineering materials. With each new commercial aircraft, the demands increase to manage higher loads, higher temperatures, with lighter weight. Each wheel must be capable of supporting nearly 30 tons of aircraft, with a roll life of 80,000 kilometers or more. Brakes must be capable of stopping the aircraft, while absorbing more than 100 MJ of energy. The equipment must function at arctic temperatures of -55 degrees C, and cope with friction material temperatures approaching 2000 degrees C. This talk will discuss the performance requirements for wheels and brakes, and how the selection and properties of engineering materials allows those demanding requirements to be met.

Wheels and brakes are manufactured from an interesting array of materials, including aerospace aluminum alloys, high temperature corrosion resistant steels, nickel based alloys, titanium alloys, and carbon-carbon composites. In this talk, the speaker will review the materials of the main components of a commercial aircraft wheel and brake, and discuss how the processing and properties of the material make it successful in the application. The speaker will, for example, discuss how it is possible that carbon can be used as a friction material at 800 degrees C, and how fatigue is managed in the aluminum alloy wheels, to ensure safe use throughout the life of the equipment.

About the Speaker

Dr. Charles A. Parker, FASM, is project leader for wheels and brakes at Honeywell Aircraft Landing Systems, South Bend, Indiana. Dr. Parker joined Honeywell in 1994, and currently is project leader for Airbus A380 wheels and brakes. Until 2002, he was a member of the Friction Materials Research and Development Team, where he made significant contributions to the development of low-cost friction materials, as well as helping to define the mechanisms of surface wear in carbon brake friction materials.

Before coming to South Bend, Dr. Parker worked for nine years at AlliedSignal Research and Technology, Des Plaines, Illinois. While there, he managed a variety of projects, including: developing oxide superconductors for motor and bearing applications, devising a computer program to estimate the properties of hydrocarbon jet fuels, and coming up with a method for estimating thermodynamic properties of alloys. He was also supervisor of the mechanical testing and electron microscopy laboratories.

Dr. Parker has master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University. He is an ASM Fellow and a past chairman of the ASM Chicago Chapter, as well as the Notre Dame Chapter.

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