Xiao Huang

Biography

Xiao Huang Professor Professor Huang has over 10 years of industrial experience in aerospace manufacturing process development, electronics manufacturing, as well as production and resource planning.  In the past 14 years since joining Carleton, Huang has leveraged her deep understanding of aerospace products and associated manufacturing challenges to establish a world class research group in aerospace materials and manufacturing process development.  As of 2016, she has attracted over 2.5M research funding, trained 29 Masters, 6 PhDs 3 PDFs, and published over 150 peer reviewed journal and conference publications. Her current research areas cover laser based additive manufacturing, gas turbine component repair and overhaul, composite material design and assessment, welding process development, gas turbine coating life prediction, and embedded sensors.  

Research Interest

Research Contributions Braze Repair Technology for Gas Turbine Engine Hot Section Components Huang has established an innovative applied research program in repair and overhaul of gas turbine engine components.  Her research team have successfully developed a novel powder mixture to improve the oxidation and fatigue resistance of repaired turbine parts, and a vertically layered architecture to extend the size of defects that can be repaired.  This technology has been transferred to an Ontario based SME.  More recently, she has developed and patented a novel ductile braze alloy system that does not rely on B or Si as melting point depressant, thus enabling the repair of single crystal superalloy turbine parts.  Discussions with OEMs on technology transfer are ongoing.  Huang is internationally known as an expert in the wide gap braze repair field, was invited to write the wide gap brazing section of the AWS brazing handbooks, and awarded the Carleton University Research Excellence Award for her work in the field.  Of her papers published in this area, one was in the top three most downloaded ASME articles in 2012, and another received the Best Paper Award by the American Welding Society in 2015. Thermal Barrier Coatings for Gas Turbine Engine Application Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are an enabling technology required to increase gas turbine operating temperature and efficiency. Huang has made significant contributions to TBC development in the following areas: development of doped yttria stabilized zirconia with improved thermal insulation and fracture toughness/damage tolerance; design and fabrication of novel diffusion barrier layers to prolong TBC life; exploring low cost TBC application technology. The work on TiO2 doped yttria stabilized zirconia received the Best Paper Award at ASME Turbo Expo 2011.  Her research team’s work on artificially induced thermally grown oxides was featured on the cover page of the Journal of Thermal Spray Technology (March 2011). Ceramic Matrix Composite Materials for Gas Turbine Engine Applications One of the major disadvantages of monolithic ceramic materials is their limited fracture strength and toughness.  One way to alleviate these deficiencies is the incorporation of strengthening mechanisms such as phase transformation and ferroelastic toughening into the matrix.  In her team’s research, a ceramic matrix composite based on nano mullite whiskers in a zirconia toughened alumina matrix was designed and processed utilizing a colloidal co-precipitation and sintering process.  The inclusion of mullite whiskers improved both flexural strength and fracture toughness. The feasibility of using this oxide/oxide with metal backbone structure for gas turbine engine application is currently being explored.