Description

Synopsis:

High-performance mechanical energy absorption is pursued to protect personnel and important infrastructures and devices. Current energy absorption materials rely on processes like plastic deformation, cell buckling, and viscoelastic dissipation, but they face challenges in obtaining high energy absorption density and reusability. Fundamentally new mechanisms to absorb mechanical energy are being developed. This talk will discuss some latest developments of energy absorption materials by focusing on nanoporous materials. For example, the forced intrusion of liquid water and aqueous solutions in hydrophobic nanoporous materials such as zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) presents an attractive pathway to engineering new energy absorption systems: substantial mechanical energy can be absorbed by generating huge liquid-solid interfaces in the nanopores. Such process can provide highly efficient and reusable impact protection at practically relevant high loading rate conditions. Some discussions on other energy absorption mechanisms or materials will also be included in this talk.

Speaker Biography

Dr Yueting Sun is a lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Birmingham. He received his Bachelor in Automotive Engineering and Bachelor in Economics from Tsinghua University in 2010, followed by a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2015. He visited the University of California, San Diego from 2013 to 2014, and held the KC Wong Fellowship at the University of Oxford from 2016 to 2018. He moved from Oxford to Birmingham in Dec 2019 and became a Lecturer in Engineering.

Meeting Link:

The virtual event will be hosted on microsoft teams platform. Click here to join the meeting.

Event Recording:

Please note that the event will be recorded and later uploaded on IMechE's YouTube page.

For any information, contact tom.grainger@member.imeche.org