Francesco Lanza Di Scalea

Professor Lanza di Scalea directs the NDE and Structural Health Monitoring Laboratory where he develops novel sensing technologies to measure the condition of structural components. His specialties are optical experimental mechanics and ultrasonic structural monitoring/NDE. On the experimental mechanics side, he has used full-field coherent optical techniques to determine stress concentrations at riveted composite joints used in civil and military vehicles. On the structural monitoring side, he has developed novel ultrasonic interrogation techniques to monitor a variety of structures spanning from aerospace to civil applications. Some of them include adhesive joints used in aircraft, steel tendons used in concrete structures, and railroad tracks. He works for a variety of agencies including the US Federal Railroad Administration, the US National Science Foundation, the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the US Department of State, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lanza di Scalea received his PhD from the University of Palermo, Italy, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the John Hopkins University. Lanza di Scalea is a 2-time UCSD Hellman Faculty Fellow, a 2-time American Society for Nondestructive Testing Research Fellowship recipient, an ASNT Faculty Grant recipient, and a Fulbright Scholar. Lanza di Scalea came to UCSD in 1999 and became Full Professor in 2007 at the age of 37.

Capsule Bio:

Before coming to the School's structural engineering department in 1999, Lanza di Scalea was a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He has also held research/teaching assistant positions at Michigan State University and the University of Palermo, Italy. Prior to entering the world of academia, Lanza di Scalea was a mechanical engineer for the Italian Navy. Lanza di Scalea earned his M.S. degree from Michigan State University as a Fulbright Scholar. He is a member of the Railway Maintenance Committee of the National Transportation Research Board, the Acoustical Society of America, the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, and the Society for Experimental Mechanics. He was a finalist for the “Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year” Award and received the ASNT Research Fellowship Award, the ASNT Faculty Grant Award, the UCSD Hellman Faculty Award, the Fulbright Scholarship, the COMETT European Union Award, the Energy and Environmental Award by the Italian Department of New Technology, and the Italian National Foundation Award for best academic thesis in experimental solid mechanics. Lanza di Scalea serves on the Editorial Board of the international journals Research in Nondestructive Evaluation and Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures.

Education:

• Post-doctoral Studies, Center for Non-destructive Evaluation, The Johns Hopkins University (1998-1999)
• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy (1997)
• M.S. and Fulbright Scholar, Engineering Mechanics, Michigan State University (1996)
• Laurea (M.S.), Summa cum Laude, Mechanical Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy (1993)

Honors and Awards:

• Structural Health Monitoring "Person of the Year" Award for "outstanding contributions to the field of SHM," Editorial Board of International Journal of Structural Health Monitoring (2007)
• American Society for Nondestructive Testing Research Fellowship Award (2002 and 2006)
• American Society for Nondestructive Testing Faculty Grant Award (2003)
• UCSD Hellman Faculty Fellowship (2000 and 2002)
• Fulbright Scholarship, US Institute for International Education (1995)
• Italian Department of New Technology, Energy and Environment Award (1993)
• COMETT European Union award (1993)
• "Giuseppe Manzella" Italian National Foundation Award for best academic thesis in experimental mechanics (1993)

Selected Publications:

• Salamone, S., Bartoli, I., Lanza di Scalea, F., and Coccia, S., “Guided-wave Health Monitoring of Aircraft Composite Panels under Changing Temperature,” Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures, doi:10.1177/1045389X08101634, 2009.
• Srivastava, A. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “On the Existence of Symmetric or Antisymmetric Lamb Waves at Nonlinear Higher Harmonics,” Journal of Sound and Vibration, 323 (3-5), pp. 932-943, 2009.
• Srivastava, A. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Quantitative Structural Health Monitoring by Ultrasonic Guided Waves,” International Journal of Condition Monitoring and Diagnostic Engineering Management (COMADEM), Special Issue on Structural Health Monitoring, in press, 2009.
• Marzani, A., Viola, E., Bartoli, I., Lanza di Scalea, F., and Rizzo, P., “A Semi-analytical Finite Element Formulation for Modeling Stress Wave Propagation in Axisymmetric Damped Waveguides” Journal of Sound and Vibration, 318(3), pp. 488-505, 2008.
• Lanza di Scalea, F. and Salamone, S., “Temperature Effects in Ultrasonic Lamb Wave Structural Health Monitoring Systems,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124(1), pp. 161-174, 2008.
• Sabra, K., Srivastava, A., Lanza di Scalea, F., Bartoli, I., Rizzo, P., and Conti, S., “Structural Health Monitoring by Extraction of Coherent Guided Waves from Diffuse Fields,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(1), pp. EL8-EL13, 2008.
• Lanza di Scalea, F. “Ultrasonic Testing Applications in the Railroad Industry,” Chapter 15: Special Applications of Ultrasonic Testing, in Non-destructive Testing Handbook, 3rd edition, P.O. Moore, ed., American Society for Nondestructive Testing, pp. 535-552, 2007.
• Rizzo, P. and Lanza di Scalea, F. “Wavelet-based Unsupervised and Supervised Learning Algorithms for Ultrasonic Structural Monitoring of Waveguides,” Chapter 8, Progress in Smart Materials and Structures Research, P. L. Reece, ed., Nova Editorial, pp. 227-290, 2006.
• Matt, H. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Macro-fiber Composite Piezoelectric Rosettes for Acoustic Source Location in Complex Structures,” Smart Materials and Structures, 16(4), pp. 1489-1499, 2007.
• Lanza di Scalea, F., Matt, H. and Bartoli, I., “The Response of Rectangular Piezoelectric Sensors to Rayleigh and Lamb Ultrasonic Waves,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 121(1), pp. 175-187, 2007.
• Lanza di Scalea, F., Matt, H., Bartoli, I., Coccia, S., Park, G. and Farrar, C., “Health Monitoring of UAV Wing Skin-to-spar Joints Using Guided Waves and Macro Fiber Composite Transducers,” Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures, 18(4), pp. 373-388, 2007.
• Park, G., Farrar, C., Lanza di Scalea, F., and Coccia, S., “Performance Assessment and Validation of Piezoelectric Active-Sensors in Structural Health Monitoring,” Smart Materials and Structures, 15, pp. 1673-1683, 2006.
• Bartoli, I., Marzani, A., Lanza di Scalea, F., and Viola, E., “Modeling Wave Propagation in Damped Waveguides of Arbitrary Cross-section,” Journal of Sound and Vibration, 295(3-5), pp. 685-707, 2006.
• Lanza di Scalea, F., Rizzo, P., Coccia, S., Bartoli, I. and Fateh, M., “Laser/air-coupled Hybrid Non-contact System for Defect Detection in Rail Tracks: Status of FRA Prototype Development at UC San Diego,” Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Record no. 1943, pp. 57-64, 2006.
• Rizzo, P. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Feature Extraction for Defect Detection in Strands by Guided Ultrasonic Waves,” Journal of Structural Health Monitoring, 5(3), pp. 297-308, 2006.
• Matta, F., Rizzo, P., Karbhari, V., and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Acoustic Emission Damage Assessment of Steel/CFRP Adhesive Bonds for Rehabilitation,” ASCE Journal of Composites for Construction, 10(3), pp. 265-274, 2006.
• Rizzo, P., Lanza di Scalea, F., Banerjee, S. and Mal, A., “Ultrasonic Characterization and Inspection of Open Cell Foams,” ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 131(11), pp. 1200-1208, 2005.
• Rizzo, P., Bartoli, I., Marzani, A. and Lanza di Scalea, F., “Defect Classification in Pipes by Neural Networks Using Multiple Guided Ultrasonic Wave Features Extracted After Wavelet Processing,” ASME Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, Special Issue on NDE of Pipeline Structures, 127(3), pp. 294-303, 2005.
• Lanza di Scalea, F. and Green, R.E., Jr., “A Hybrid Non-contact Ultrasonic System for Sensing Bond Quality in Tow-placed Thermoplastic Composites,” Journal of Composite Materials, 34(21), pp. 1860-1880, 2000.
• Lanza di Scalea, F., Soonsung, H. and Cloud, G.L., “Whole-Field Strain Measurements in Pin-Loaded Plate by Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometry and the Finite Element Method,” Experimental Mechanics, 38(1), pp. 55-60, 1998.
• Lanza di Scalea, F., “Measurement of Thermal Expansion Coefficients of Composites using Strain Gages,” Experimental Mechanics, 38(4), pp. 233-241, 1998.
• Lanza di Scalea, F., Cappello, F. and Cloud, G.L., “A Study on the Effects of Clearance and Interference Fits in a Pin-Loaded Cross-Ply FGRP Laminate,” Journal of Composite Materials, 32(8), pp. 783-803, 1998.

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