Micro-Ballistics: An Emerging Opportunity to Study Extreme Dynamics of Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites

Exceptional mechanical characteristics of carbon-based nanomaterials have become a topic of interest in a field of engineering where disruptive innovation is desired. However, there is very little known about carbon-based nanomaterials' behaviors under extremely rapid deformation even though these are particularly important for advanced protective materials. Moreover, the collective mechanical properties of an ensemble of these nanomaterials such as nanocomposites are nearly undiscovered at this ultrahigh-strain-rate regime. In this talk, I will present our recent micro-ballistic studies designed to quantify the collective mechanical characteristics of graphene, carbon nanotubes, and graphene-based nanocomposites when deformed at extraordinarily fast speeds comparable to their speed of sound.

Bio

Jae-Hwang Lee is an Associate Professor of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was a research scientist at the Smalley-Curl Institute at Rice before joining UMass in 2014. He received a PhD degree in Condensed Matter Physics in 2006 at Iowa State. During his postdoctoral study in the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT, he devised a microballistic technique known as the laser-induced projectile impact test (LIPIT), and has applied the LIPIT to the study of extreme mechanical deformation of various materials, including alloys, ceramics, nanocomposites, and tissues.