Hill Engineering Blog

Happy birthday to the contour method

Today marks a major milestone in the field of residual stress measurement. The contour method, one of the most useful and advanced residual stress measurement techniques, was first successfully implemented on this date (August 16th) in 1999 by Mike Prime at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The most significant feature of the contour method is its ability to generate detailed two-dimensional residual stress maps like the one shown below. Please join us in wishing the contour method a very happy 18th birthday! Continue reading Happy birthday to the contour method

Tensile test

A tensile test is a standard method used by material scientists and engineers to determine important material strength and ductility properties. For example, tensile tests can be used to measure the yield strength of a material, which is defined as the stress at which a material begins to deform plastically. Hill Engineering has ample experience performing tensile tests, and other mechanical property tests, in pursuit of our passion to maximize the potential of materials.

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Lincoln Award

The Lincoln Award is named in honor of Dr. John W. (Jack) Lincoln, the U.S. Air Force’s first Technical Advisor for Aircraft Structural Integrity. An internationally recognized expert in structural integrity, fatigue analysis, and aviation safety, Dr. Lincoln is credited with developing the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program (ASIP) that is now institutionalized throughout the Air Force and recognized worldwide as the foundation for aircraft structural safety. Continue reading Lincoln Award

Residual stress calculation

In a recent blog post we discussed the question: what is residual stress. As a follow-up, today we are addressing the topic of residual stress calculation. Once you understand the concept of residual stress and are ready to account for its effect on material performance it’s important to quantify the residual stress that is present in your material. Residual stress calculation can include a variety of different topics. Continue reading Residual stress calculation

Hill Engineering opens new office

Hill Engineering, LLC, answering strong demand for its aircraft structural integrity, fatigue analysis and design, and residual stress engineering services, has opened a satellite office in Layton, UT. This new office will allow Hill Engineering to better connect and collaborate with our customers and partners in the local area and the broader aerospace community. Continue reading Hill Engineering opens new office

New building anniversary

On May 31, 2017, Hill Engineering celebrated our 1 year anniversary in our new facility in Rancho Cordova, CA. The new, expanded facility has enabled us to work more effectively and efficiently while at the same time adding more capacity for our growing services in residual stress measurement, fatigue analysis and design, and residual stress engineering services. Continue reading New building anniversary

SEM Annual Conference and Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics

Hill Engineering will be presenting at the upcoming Annual 2017 Conference and Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics, which is organized by the Society of Experimental Mechanics (SEM). The conference will run from June 12, 2017 through June 15, 2017 and will be located in Indianapolis, IN. We invite you to come see us while we share some recent work about residual stress measurement repeatability using the contour method. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading SEM Annual Conference and Exposition on Experimental and Applied Mechanics

What is Residual Stress?

What is residual stress? That’s a very common question when you work at Hill Engineering. Many of our customers, friends, colleagues, and family members like to ask us questions about residual stress including: What is residual stress? How do you measure it? How does residual stress affect material performance? If you have questions about these topics, you’ve come to the right place. At Hill Engineering we love to talk about our work and we have a lot to share about residual stress. Continue reading What is Residual Stress?

Come see us at PS&S 2017

Hill Engineering will be presenting at the upcoming Propulsion Safety & Sustainment Conference (PS&S) in Phoenix, AZ on May 22nd through May 25th. We invite you to come see us. We will be sharing some recent work about experimental validation of process models for nickel engine disk design. Hill Engineering’s presentation will include a summary of residual stress measurements used to calibrate and validate process models for nickel engine disk applications. The abstract text is presented below. Continue reading Come see us at PS&S 2017