Wolfgang Sachse
on Titlis in the Swiss Alps at 2650 m

Meinig Family Professor of Engineering
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York - 14853-1503 USA

+1 / 607/255-5065; -5062; FAX: +1 / 607/255-9179; sachse@msc.cornell.edu
B.S. 1963 (Penn State University); M.S.E. 1966, Ph.D. 1970 (Johns Hopkins University)

Biography

Before joining the Cornell faculty in 1970, Sachse was a Humboldt fellow at the Institut für allgemeine Metallkunde und Metallphysik in Aachen, Germany. At Cornell he is a faculty member of the Graduate Fields of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and of Materials Science and Engineering and he is a member of the Materials Science Center.

Teaching Interests

Sachse's teaching interests are in the areas of experimental mechanics, dynamics, vibrations, acoustics, sensors, actuators and measurement systems. For the latter, he has developed an introductory engineering laboratory course entitled "Sensors and Actuators" for which he received the Dean's Prize for Teaching in 1989. He and M. O. Thompson developed a new Introduction to Engineering course on `Engineering Design' that is focused on the portable compact disc players. During the Summer, Sachse serves as Faculty Coordinator of the Materials Science Center's Research Experience for Undergraduates progam. This REU program provides opportunities for undergraduates to explore a number of research areas in materials science at Cornell.

Research Interests

Sachse's research interests include the interaction of sound and materials, sensors and measurement systems. Over the years his research has focused on the development of quantitative ultrasonic and acoustic emission techniques for measurement of material properties and nondestructive testing applications. Current Research Projects include experimental work in ultrasonics, physical acoustics, and quantitative ultrasonic techniques, including the use of advanced signal processing techniques for the nondestructive testing and characterization of materials.

The specific research topics that Sachse and his research group have studied, include the ultrasonic characterization of composite materials; the scattering of ultrasonic waves by various obstacles in elastic media; acoustic emission; the development and characterization of ultrasonic transducers; the visualization of elastic waves by optical techniques; acoustoelasticity and the ultrasonic measurement of residual stresses in solids; and ultrasound generated by spark-, X-ray, and Joule heating for determining material properties and imaging their microstructures. The most recent efforts have focused on the development of new quantitative ultrasonic techniques that can be used to characterize failure processes in materials and to determine the interfacial strength of a fiber in a matrix or a thin metal coating on a non-metal substrate. These techniques also permit the characterization of elastic anisotropy of composite and other materials. A major focus is the adaptation of a neural-like, intelligent processing system to solve elastic wave inverse problems.

The results of this work have been published in more than 120 technical papers, 65 conference contributions, and two critical reviews, one on ultrasonic transducers and the second on acoustoelasticity and the measurement of residual stresses. He has been awarded two US Patents and has applied for a third. The monograph Synergetics of Measurement, Prediction and Control, that Sachse co-authored with I. Grabec, was published by Springer-Verlag in 1997.

Sachse is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the Acoustic Emission Working Group, and the Institute of Acoustics (UK), a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a scientific member of the Böhmische Physikalische Gesellschaft and a member of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, an inactive member in the Society for Experimental Mechanics and Sigma Xi. In addition to serving as Editor-in-Chief of Research in Nondestructive Evaluation. Sachse is also an associate technical editor of Materials Evaluation and he serves on the International Advisory Board of the journal Ultrasonics. He is past chairman of the Acoustic Emission Working Group and has been the organizer of a number of national and international conferences on ultrasonic and acoustic emission techniques for materials testing. He is the Technical Co-chair of Ultrasonics International'99 which will be held jointly with the World Congress on Ultrasound in Lyngby Denmark, June/July 1999.

Last update: January 15, 1998.