Track length: 17,014 feet. Ride duration: six seconds. Acceleration at top speed: 150-160 Gs. Maximum speed: 6,400 miles per hour.

No, this is not a promotion for the next record-breaking amusement park thrill ride. It is statistics of the U.S. Air Force's world's fastest land speed sled, and UD's own civil engineering professor Bob Brockman will be going along for the ride, figuratively speaking.

In keeping with the University of Dayton's reputation for federally funded engineering research, being ranked first in Ohio and 13th nationally among universities, Brockman has been asked by the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology to participate in a study of the wear and tear of materials under high speeds.

'I've been involved in a lot of work on modeling the details of material behavior, but this problem has some unique features and is also challenging because it is hard to measure much of anything at the speeds involved,' Brockman said. 'I'm really looking forward to it.'

Most of his experience comes from his full-time research with the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) doing government and industrial sponsored research in the Aerospace Mechanic Division. But 33 years work experience on research problems in mechanics and three mechanical engineering degrees could not prepare Brockman for his most interesting assignment to date: studying the world's fastest sled.

'The project is about trying to understand how materials wear away when they are moving at high speeds, how to model the progress and how to design coatings or other protective measures that will make everything last longer,' Brockman said.

This extraordinary piece of machinery is located at the Holloman Air Force Base near Albuquerque, N.M., which has been testing crashworthiness systems, missile defense hardware and simulations of space vehicle reentries since the 1950s.

The Holloman High-Speed Test Track's double-rail system allows the sled to travel the overall land speed record of Mach 8.5. A test scheduled for next year, however, is expected to break that record, reaching speeds of 7,500 miles per hour or Mach 10.

Traveling at these incredible speeds makes it impossible for the sled to run on wheels. To solve this, the sled grabs onto the rails with little feet called slippers, which deteriorate due to constant scuffing, pounding, and heating. This is where Brockman's work begins.

'By understanding how to slow down wear in the sled test facility, we can ultimately improve our ability to design longer-lasting and safer components for the cars and planes you ride in, the buildings you live in and the consumer products you use,' Brockman said.

The knowledge Brockman hopes to gain will make products safer and possibly less expensive. The wear and friction of the slippers, for example, can be applied to the sliding pistons in a car's engine or can be applied to how tires leave worn out material on the road. Such benefits would decrease the number of material failure related crashes in cars and planes.

With the University of Dayton Research Institute celebrating 50 years of having a real world impact through its sponsored research, it is without a doubt that Brockman's work with the world's fastest sled and his results on the wear of materials will climb the ranks of UDRI's highest accomplishments, right next to the phase changing material used in Domino's pizza heated delivery bags.