Granular materials are ubiquitous and play an important role in many industries. Their mechanical response is determined by a number of factors including particle size distribution, packing arrangement, and the characteristics of the grains themselves. Control of these attributes provides opportunities to functionalize them.
Current research in Purdue’s geotechnical engineering lab is exploring the use of soft coatings to control the stiffness and attenuation properties of granular assemblies. A method has been developed for coating model grains (glass beads ~ 4 mm I diameter) with a silicone-based paint. Preliminary experiments using the resonant column apparatus indicate that a silicone coating as thin as 10-15 microns is effective in significant in enhancing the damping characteristics of the material.

Responsibilities of the SURF student will include:
- Performing coating experiments on both the model beads and natural granular materials (fine gravels)
- Characterizing the coated grains through microscopy and measurements of the coefficient of rebound
- Measuring the packing characteristics of the grains as a function of different thicknesses of the coating
- Possibly exploring coating with an additional material.

West Lafayette

Engineering the Built Environment, Material Processing and Characterization

• Materials Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Agricultural and Bio Engineering

Lyles School of Civil Engineering

Marika Santagata