HEMI’s newest lab, the Hypervelocity Facility for Impact Research Experiments (HyFIRE),  is featured in the Tech Tools section of the Winter 2020 issue of JHU Engineering magazine.

What happens to a tank at the micro level when it’s hit by a projectile during combat? Or to the surface of an asteroid as it collides with a planet in space? Researchers at the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute are using equipment located in the Hypervelocity Facility for Impact Research Experiments to find answers to questions like these.

Employing a specialized hypervelocity gas gun, they launch projectiles a few millimeters in diameter at velocities up to 7 kilometers per second (Mach 20), while ultra -high-speed cameras capture the resulting events. This allows the researchers to view, in real time, how materials fail during extreme impact and to collect data that measure mechanics, strain rates, temperatures, physics, and chemistry at very high pressures. HEMI scientists hope to use this information to understand and, eventually, create materials that will better protect people, structures, and the planet.

Click here to view more articles from the issue. 

We are pleased to unveil the most recent informational video for HEMI. Shot mainly over the course of the past year, this piece aims to answer the questions, ‘What is the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute? What does it do?’ Included are images and comments about HEMI’s research, academic programs and conferences, and our collaborations with industry, government, and academia.

Many thanks to all who contributed to the piece and helped make it the most comprehensive explanation of HEMI to date.

HEMI recently purchased an Instron CEAST 9350 Drop Tower for impact research, continuing our mission to protect people, structures, and the planet. This versatile equipment can collide materials from composites to finished products at speeds from 2 to 55 miles per hour. The tower will be used to test materials’ failure under impact with applications ranging from asteroid collision prevention to protective material design for the U.S. Army. It is located in Malone Hall and will be ready to use by the end of the summer.

The Summer 2016 issue of JHU Engineering Magazine featured the new acquisition in the Tech Tools section.  Click here to learn more about the Drop Tower and its capabilities.