Title:

Overview of Some Failure Analysis Examinations

Speaker:

Dr. James D. Foley

Affiliation:

Los Alamos National Laboratory

When:

Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 4:00:00 PM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Love Building, Room 183

Host:

Jud Ready
jud.ready@gtri.gatech.edu

Abstract

Often when an engineer or scientist makes a mistake there are costly and sometimes deadly consequences. People are fallible and even the best people make mistakes. It is important to understand past events and work to prevent future events. Failure events can be avoided through an understanding of the reasons mistakes occur and application of the lessons learned from past events. This presentation will review three different failure events and the failure analysis that was performed. Examples of how materials knowledge is used to determine the mode of failure and sometimes the reason for failure will be presented. In addition, things to be considered when doing a failure analysis investigation will also be covered.

Biography

Dr. James C. Foley is a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received his B.S. in 1988, M.S.in 1991, and Ph.D.in 1997 in metallurgical engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory from 1997 through 1998. From 1998 through 2003, he was an associate scientist at Ames Laboratory. His research interests cover amorphous alloys, lead-free solder, aluminum alloys, beryllium, and powder metallurgy.