Dr. Wilson joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as a research faculty member in 2002 and serves as the research specialist for the Mechanical and Metallurgical Characterization Facility through the Center for Materials Research and Analysis. Dr. Wilson also serves as the faculty advisor for the Mini Baja program organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) section on student design competitions. He is a member of the SAE, the American Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM), and the American Society for Metals (ASM) professional societies.
Roller Bearings
Objective: to improve the performance of tapered roller bearings by controlling the phenomena of cone bore growth, impact damage and fatigue spalling in railcar bearings. Additional research is designed to quantify the effects of process variables on the amount of retained austenite in the finished bearing, and to determine the effect of new and improved heat treatments, materials, and processing changes on bearing performance.
Railcar Wheels
Objective: to improve the performance of railcar wheels by increasing the resistance to rolling contact fatigue. Rolling contact fatigue resistance is largely dependent on a material's microstructure, strength, and residual stress at the rolling surface. These material variables are sensitive to the processing and heat treatment history used in the manufacturing process. In order to modify these variables, this study is primarily concerned with modifying the existing steel chemistry and heat treatment parameters.
USS Arizona
Objective: to determine the corrosion rate of the steel hull of the USS Arizona. The study involves many aspects; but research at UNL is focused on the electrochemical and metallurgical characterizations. Current work is focused on using iron content of the concretion as a means to determine the resultant corrosion rate of the hull at various depths. This work is being done in conjunction with the facilities in the UNL Department of Chemistry.
M.G. Dick, B.M. Wilson, "Hertzian Contact Stress Modeling in Railcar Bearings using Finite Element Analysis", Advances in Bearing Steel Technology (also JAI), ASTM, in press 2005.
D.L. Johnson, B.M. Wilson et al., "Correlation of Situ Corrosion Studies on the USS Arizona", Proceedings of the USS Arizona Symposium, in press 2005.
D.L. Johnson, B.M. Wilson et al, "Marine Corrosion of Historical Steel Structures: Battleship USS Arizona-Pearl Harbor", Proceedings of Symposium 'Corrosion Science in the 21st Century' at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester, UK, hosted by UMIST and CAPCIS Ltd, July 2003.
B.M. Wilson and W.N. Weins, "Retained Austenite and Tooling Failure Case Studies", Proceedings of the 20th Conference ASM International; Volume 1, (USA), pp. 566-573, 2000.
S.H. Magner, B.M. Wilson, and R.J. De Angelis, "Calculation of Major Crystallographic Poles Along ODF Fibers Parallel to the Gamma Fiber", Advances in X-Ray Analysis, Vol. 44, pp. 257-265, 2000.
B.M. Wilson, W.N. Weins, and R.J. De Angelis, "Metallographic Characterization of Liquid Metal Embrittlement of a Failed Locomotive Axle", in Understanding Processing, Structure, Property, and Behavior Correlations, ASM International, (USA), pp. 78-83, 2000.
