Advances in the science of computational modeling of materials and structures have made it possible not just to redesign materials traditionally used in armor and other defense applications, but to develop new ones.
That’s one of the goals of Somnath Ghosh, director of the Whiting School’s Computational Mechanics Research Laboratory and a leading member of the HEMI team. He develops state-of-the-art computer models to study the three-dimensional, multiscale effects of blast waves, including atom-by-atom responses of deformation, wear and tear, and impacts on structures made of crystalline and composite materials.
Ghosh, the Michael G. Callas Professor of Civil Engineering, leads the new Hopkins Center of Excellence on Integrated Material Modeling, a $3 million U.S. Air Force program to develop lightweight, durable alloys for aircraft parts and turbine engines—for use in everything from fighter aircraft to surveillance drones.