Title:

Mechanical Design of Protective Materials and Systems

Speaker:

Dr. Lifeng Wang

Affiliation:

Department of Mechanical Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology

When:

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 11:00:00 AM   Add to Calendar

Where:

Montgomery Knight Building, Room 317

Host:

Massimo Ruzzene
ruzzene@gatech.edu
(404) 894 3078

Abstract

New design concepts for energy absorption materials, particularly for personal protection applications, have attracted great interest in material science. The extraordinary mechanical performances, especially large deformation behavior, of polymer structures and composites enable them as constituents in hierarchically structured protective systems for achieving superior mechanical performance. Here I have studied the plastic dissipation mechanism and mechanical response of polymeric microframe structures using micromechanical modeling of large deformations. I have proposed two polymer structured composite materials to achieve unique combinations of mechanical behavior including stiffness, strength, and energy dissipation. The material design of each capitalizes upon the insight gained from previous microframe structure dissipation mechanisms. I have demonstrated numerically and experimentally that the mutual constraints between each phase of co-continuous composites can lead to unique and superior mechanical behavior. These studies provide fundamental understanding of optimizing penetration resistance and protection and guidance for fabrication of advanced protective systems.

Biography

Dr. Lifeng Wang is a currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his B. E. (2001) Ph.D. (2006) both from Tsinghua University, majoring in Solid Mechanics. Since graduation he worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT. Dr. Wang received National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award of P.R. China (2008) and Natural Science Award from Ministry of Education of China (2009). His current research interest includes mechanical behaviors of polymer fibers, microframes, and composites, nanomechanics of biological materials and bio-inspired materials, and mechanics of carbon nanotubes, graphite, and other carbon systems.