HEMI – APL A&MD grant seed award

Dec 5, 2022 | No Comments | By Salena Fitzgerald

James Spicer, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and HEMI staff engineers Matt Shaeffer and Justin Moreno, have been awarded $50,000 HEMI–APL Air and Missile Defense (A&MD) seed grants.  

Spicer teamed with A&MD materials scientists Yo-Rhin Rhim and Dajie Zhang on a proposal titled “Photo-assisted processing of micro-structured ultra-high-temperature-ceramics.” Their seed grant will be used to investigate the feasibility of fabricating dense carbide coatings for environmental barrier applications using gas-solid reaction-based processes. They will also look into cellular carbide microstructures for thermal management under extreme conditions. 

Shaeffer and Moreno will support David Brown of A&MD in a seed grant project titled, “Hypersonic impact studies of large particles.” They will explore the resultant phenomena of particles 50 to 100 micrometers in diameter moving at hypersonic velocities colliding with a metal target using real-time diagnostics. To achieve these velocities, the team will utilize HEMI’s hypervelocity facility for impact research experiments (HyFIRE). The HyFIRE diagnostic equipment will enable them to determine the critical failure mechanisms and how the material behaves under these extreme impact conditions. 

The HEMI – APL A&MD seed grants program is jointly funded by the Whiting School of Engineering and the Applied Physics Laboratory.  

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