The research and development of damage tolerant carbon fiber composites

This record of study takes a first hand look at corporate research and development efforts to improve the damage tolerance of two unique composite materials used in high performance aerospace applications. The professional internship with The Dow Chemical Company—Dow/United Technologies joint venture describes the intern's involvement in developing patentable process technologies for interleave toughening of high temperature resins and their composites. The subsequent internship with Hexcel Corporation describes the intern's involvement in developing the damage tolerance of novel and existing honeycomb sandwich structure technologies.; Through the Doctor of Engineering professional internship experience this student exercised fundamental academic understanding and methods toward accomplishing the corporate objectives of the internship sponsors in a resource efficient and cost-effective manner. Also, the student gained tremendous autonomy through exceptional training in working in focused team environments with highly trained engineers and scientists in achieving important corporate objectives.