Zwick has established an application laboratory at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The laboratory is part of the new School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the testing machines are being used for both R&D and student education.
Students at NTU study "Failure analysis of aircraft components", and this course includes the findings of investigations into two Comet aircraft crashes in 1954. The Comet was the world's first passenger jet airliner, designed and built in Britain. Yet after two fatal crashes within three months it was discovered that the aircraft was prone to metal fatigue.
In different experiments with round and rectangular holes in aluminium specimens the students investigate the influence of fatigue in these materials. They also study:
- Photo-elasticity Tests to visualize the stress states in such structures
- Static tensile tests on the aluminium samples using a Zwick 10kN testing machine with integrated multiXtens digital extensometer.
- High frequency tests on the Zwick HFP resonance fatigue tester
The objective of these modules is that the students understand how the fatigue properties of metals vary depending on hole geometry, mean stress and stress amplitudes.