Prof. Leijun Li's Research Programs


    Sponsored Research in Dr. Li's group includes projects on processing of advanced materials, welding and joining of alloys and composites, testing of mechanical properties, characterization of material structures, and modeling of transport phenomena in materials processing.

    Our research have produced numerous papers and reports; more than 9 of them have been selected as the best papers for awards, including 4 times AWS Hobart Award for best pipeline welding papers, and 2 times AWS Savage Award for best welding metallurgy papers.

    Current Projects
    1. IOSI-Imperial Oil and NSERC Alliance - Vibrational stress reduction for ground-engage tool structures, (PI)
    2. Alberta Innovates Ecosystem Program - Alberta Advanced Manufacturing International Hub (AM-IH), (PI and Hub Director)
    3. NSERC Alliance Missions Grant - Recovery and Utilization of REE, Ti and Zr Minerals from Alberta Oil Sands Froth Treatment Tailings, with InnoTech Alberta and CVW CleanTech Inc., (co-PI)
    4. Suncor Energy Inc and MITACS Accelerate, Optimizing WPS of Steam Pipe Welds for Flow-accelerated Corrosion, (PI)
    5. American Welding Society Graduate Fellowship for Ravi Kopparthi, ERW Mechanisms, (PI)
    6. MITACS Accelerate Program - Bradken, Homogenization and Residual Stresses in Castings of Ground-Engagement Devices, (PI)
    7. IOSI-Imperial Oil and NSERC Alliance, Deep Cryogenic Treatment of Shovel Teeth and Crawler Shoes, (PI)
    8. NSERC Alliance Grant, (Ti,Nb)(C,N) precipitate characterization: from hot rolling to girth welding, (co-PI)
    9. MITACS and EVRAZ Inc NA - Accelerate Program, Physical and Numerical Simulations of HF-Electric Resistance Welding, (PI)
    10. NSERC Discovery Grant, and InnoTech Alberta Grant, Phase Transformations in the Heat-affected Zone of Microalloyed Steels, (PI)
    11. Suncor Energy, Inc., Coke Drum Materials Testing and Repair Welding (PI)

    Past Projects
    1. MITACS Accelerate Program, Sustainable materials and manufacturing for resource sector applications, (co-PI)
    2. MITACS and Suncor Energy - Accelerate Program, Boat Sample Testing of Coke Drums, (PI)
    3. MITACS and InnoTech - Elevate Program, Brazing Metallurgy and Processes for Attaching Sintered Carbide Tiles, (PI)
    4. MITACS and Suncor Energy - Accelerate Program, Effect of Hydrostatic Testing Pressure on High-temperature Fatigue Life of Boiler Wall Tubes, (PI)
    5. MITACS and Trimay - Accelerate Program, Alloy Design of Wear and Corrosion Resistant Overlays, (PI)
    6. NSERC CRD Grant with Supreme Steel, Development of Stability Design Guidelines for Modern I-Shaped Welded Steel Girders in Canada, (co-PI)
    7. MITACS Accelerate Project with Evraz North America, Improving Toughness of Electric Resistance Weld Bondline of X70 Linepipe (PI)
    8. NSERC CRD Project with SSAB, Accelerated Development of Wear and Corrosion Resistant Overlay Electrodes (PI)
    9. NSERC Engage and CRD Programs with AltaSteel and Moly-Cop Canada, Impact Toughness of Abrasive Resistant 1% Cr Eutectoid Steel (PI)
    10. NSERC Discovery Program, Microstructural Development and Performance of Welds in Energy-Related Alloys (PI)
    11. NSERC Engage Project with Suncor Energy Inc, Microstructure and Jagged Crack Formation in Coke Drum Cladding (PI)
    12. MITACS and Waiward Steel Fabricate Ltd, Mitacs-Accelerate Graduate Research Internship Program for Chris Di Giovanni (co-PI)
    13. NSF, MRI - Acquisition of a Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope to Catalyze Campus-Wide Research in Bio/Nano and Advanced Energy Materials (PI)
    14. AZZ WRI, Miniature Mechanical Testing of Sensitized Pressure Vessel Alloys (PI)
    15. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) - Program Support: Near-blackbody, Enclosed Particle Receiver Integrated with Fluidized-bed Heat Exchanger (co-PI)
    16. USU VPR - RC program: Accelerated Creep Test Method Development (PI)
    17. National Science Foundation Planning grant - Radioactive Materials Processing Center - RAMP-C (NSF) (co-PI)
    18. Aspen Systems Inc. - Testing of High-Temperature Properties of a Mo-Si-B Alloy
    19. U.S. Department of Energy (NEUP) - Effect of Post-Weld Heat Treatment on Creep Rupture Properties of Grade 91 Steel Heavy Section Welds
    20. Solid-state synthesis of nano-scale hydrogen storage materials by bulk mechanical alloying (NSF)
    21. Mechanical properties of gamma-prime strengthened superalloys, an interpretive review (The Pressure Vessel Research Council and Welding Research Council)
    22. Analytical and experimental study of gold-gold cold bonding in thermal switches for The James Webb Space Telescope (NASA - SDL).
    23. Cause of cracking and rejuvenation of a refinery exchanger (Shell Co.)
    24. Automatic GTA welding of aluminum alloy 7075
    25. Pulsed-GMA welding of titanium alloys
    26. Laser repair of titanium alloys for aerospace application (Triton Systems).
    27. Manufacturing and testing of innovative Ti implant materials/structures using Nd:YAG laser deposition, funded by the CURI program
    28. Fatigue properties analysis of welded aluminum casting for aerospace structures (GSC Foundries, Inc).
    29. Nanomaterials educational project funded by the NSF
    30. High-performance gamma-prime strengthened cast nickel-base superalloys, an interpretive review (The Pressure Vessel Research Council and Welding Research Council)
    31. Diffusion bonding of thermal links for aerospace applications (NASA-SDL)
    32. Mechanical Testing of Joints for Aluminum Frames (YESCO)
    33. "State Center of Excellence: Thermal Management Technologies" (The State of Utah)
    34. "State Center of Excellence: Control of Flow in Manufacturing" (The State of Utah)
    35. Gleeble-based testing of mechanical joints for aerospace structures (SDL-NASA)
    36. Gleeble-based testing of hot ductility of a Cr-Mo steel (Lloyd's Register Capstone)
    37. Design and fabrication of elastic-expandable tubes for oil drills (DTS)
    38. Ultrasonic consolidation of metal-matrix composites (NSF-DMI)(co-PI)
    39. Direction and profile control for thermal sprays (NSF STTR Phase 1)(co-PI)
    40. Coupled Thermal-Electric-Structural Analysis of Interconnect for 3D ICs, Micron Research Center at USU
    41. Research Catalyst - Effect of electrical arcing on reflectometry of wire network for Structural integrity monitoring (USU VP for Research)
    42. Pulsed-laser powder deposition of superalloys (AWS Fellowship)
    43. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) - Nuclear Engineering Scholarship program at Utah State University (co-PI)
    44. Laser repair of GTD-111 superalloy (The Welding Research Council)

    Sponsors of Our Research
    1. US Army - Triton Systems Inc.
    2. NASA - Space Dynamics Lab, USU Research Foundation
    3. The National Science Foundation - Programs DMR-NUE, DMI, CMS-NER, I/UCRC
    4. The Welding Research Council (WRC)
    5. The State of Utah
    6. Vice President for Research, USU
    7. Shell Co.
    8. Dynamic Tubular Systems, Inc. (DTS)
    9. MedicineLodge Inc.
    10. GSC Foundries
    11. ATK Motorcyles
    12. Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO)
    13. Micron Technology - Micron Research Center
    14. American Welding Society (AWS)
    15. Lloyd's Register Capstone, Inc.
    16. US Department of Energy - NUEP
    17. US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)
    18. Aspen Systems Inc.
    19. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL)
    20. AZZ WRI
    21. NSERC - National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
    22. AltaSteel, Inc.
    23. Moly-COP Canada
    24. Suncor Energy
    25. Evraz Americas
    26. SSAB Americas
    27. Imperial Oil
    28. Bradken Inc.
    29. InnoTech Alberta

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    copyright (c) 2003 to 2013 Prof. Leijun Li at Utah State University; 2014 to present, Prof. Leijun Li at University of Alberta