About Us | History
From the CINDAS LLC archives comes the historically important film called The Anatomy of Data. This approximately 15 minute long video describes the need for critically evaluated data, and the process by which CINDAS at Purdue University painstakingly analyzed and synthesized data curves on thousands of materials. The importance of having data with a pedigree is explained.
Beginnings
For over 45 years, the Center for Information and Numerical Data Analysis and Synthesis (CINDAS) at Purdue University managed a comprehensive and systematic research program on the properties and behavior of materials. For this work CINDAS achieved a worldwide reputation among engineers and scientists. The program involved both basic and applied research, using both experimental techniques and literature searches. This program included the identification and collection of available and relevant worldwide scientific and technical literature; the compilation, critical evaluation, correlation, and synthesis of both existing and new experimental data to produce reliable reference data (recommended values); and the generation of estimated values to fill data gaps and voids.
Early Successes
The major products of CINDAS were the numerous volumes of data on materials properties and related information. The most prominent of the series was known as The Thermophysical Properties of Matter - The TPRC Data Series. The TPRC Data Series covers thermophysical properties such as thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, specific heat, thermal diffusivity and thermal radiative properties like spectral and total emittance (normal, hemispherical, and angular), spectral reflectance (normal and hemispherical), spectral transmittance (normal), spectral and solar absorbance (normal) for elemental metals, ferrous and nonferrous alloys, single, binary, ternary oxides and mixtures of oxides, non-oxide compounds like iodides, fluorides, carbides, chlorides, nitrates, nitrides, phosphates, sulfates, sulfides, cermets, minerals raw and processed, semiconductors, polymers, composites, and animal and vegetable natural substances.
The TPRC Data Series also contains data on thermal conductivity, specific heat and viscosity for a range of liquids and gases, most of which are of interest to industry. All data for solids are dependent on temperature, or on wavelength and temperature as in the case of the radiative properties, or on temperature and pressure in the case of fluids. The TPRC Data Series contains recommended values for thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, thermal diffusivity, and viscosity of a large number of solids and fluids, as well as highly reliable experimental data.
Information Analysis Centers
In the years between 1960 and 1996, CINDAS operated five Information Analysis Centers (IACs) for the Department of Defense (DoD). They included the DoD Thermophysical and Electronic Properties IAC from 1960 to 1985, the High Temperature Materials IAC (1986-1996), the Ceramics IAC (1990-1996), the Metals IAC (1990-1996), and the Metal Matrix Composites IAC (1992-1996). For the DoD IACs, CINDAS published numerous volumes of data on mechanical, thermophysical, optical and thermoradiative properties of materials such as intermetallic alloys, aluminides, silicides, beryllides, ceramic matrix composites, mercury, cadmium telluride, and selected infrared window and dome materials.
By adding the vast amount of data on new and existing materials accumulated from the operation of the IACs, updating the existing data of The TPRC Data Series, and converting the data to an electronic medium, a second edition of the series can be published that will become the worldwide standard for such data.
In addition to the operation of the IACs, from 1992 to 2006 CINDAS updated and disseminated various handbooks for the United States Air Force (USAF); the most significant of these was the Aerospace Structural Metals Handbook.
Microelectronics Developments
Another project was the 15-year effort developing the microelectronic packaging materials database. The SRC/CINDAS Microelectronics Packaging Materials Database was developed and maintained by CINDAS under the sponsorship of the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). The database contained data and information on thermal, mechanical, electrical, and physical properties of electronics packaging materials. The data was generated through critical analysis and evaluation of data compiled from the literature, as well as through experimental measurements performed at Purdue and other universities affiliated with SRC. This database is a unique source of reliable materials properties data and supports leading- edge packaging design and manufacturing in the choice of materials.
Related CINDAS Links
The following links take you to a web site that is not part of the CINDAS LLC web site. Access to this web site is not within the control of CINDAS LLC.