Designing and
fabrication of novel
metal-graphene
composites
Designing and manufacturing materials,
particularly metals, which are concurrently
strong, ductile, and defect tolerant is still
a challenging research, despite decades of
much effort that has been made on solving
this long-standing problem. The challenge mostly originated from the fact that improving one
of these properties is invariably compromised by losing the other two. We are using cutting-
edge computational and experimental methods for designing and fabricated novel Metal-
Graphene composites to overcome this challenge. Our methodology introduces relatively
easy-to-fabricate nanolayered metal composites with superior mechanical properties. Atom-
istic-scale deformation mechanisms, and mechanics of hindering the dislocations propagation
by graphene nanoplatelets with different configurations in the nanocrystalline metallic matrix
are investigated computationally. Molecular dynamics findings are utilized to engineer the
nanostructure of metal matrix composite. Designed composites are fabricated by electron
beam evaporation, and monolayer particles of graphene are embedded into the metallic ma-
trix. The study is a part of a $360,000 grant obtained as a Young Investigator Program award
from AFOSR.
Alireza
Haghighat
Professor
Research
Focus:
Development
of advanced
particle meth-
ods; Devel-
opment of
advanced
particle trans-
port codes;
Development
of collaborative
virtual real-
ity systems for
scientific com-
puting
Reza Mirzaeifar
Assistant
Professor
Research
Focus:
Computational
and experimen-
tal mechanics
of materials;
Multiscale
analysis; Natu-
ral hazards miti-
gation; Shape
memory alloys
Project develops
code for Virtual
Reality
simulation for
nuclear system
Alireza Haghighat leads a project on
the development of a novel RAPID
code system for simulation of nuclear
system in real time and using a novel
virtual reality environment. This work
has received significant attention by
the international nuclear community.
Over the past year, this project has
achieved a number of accomplish-
ments including: development and
benchmarking of a novel kinetics
(tRAPID) algorithm and its benchmark-
ing, development of a detector response function (DRF) and its benchmarking using reactor
pressure vessel dosimetry and spent fuel cask problems, further benchmarking of RAPID
methodology using the International criticality handbook, further analysis of the RAPID’s
burnup algorithm, development a novel of control rod algorithm and its benchmarking using
the Jozef Stefan Institute’s TRIGA reactor system, and performance of control rod experi-
ments for the benchmarking of the tRAPID algorithm.
An MOU between the Jozef Stefan Institute of Slovenia and Virginia Tech has resulted in
the use of the JSI’s TRIGA reactor for benchmarking, exchange of scholars between the JSI’s
reactor physics section and Haghighat’s group, a 2-week short course on ‘Particle Transport
Theory and Methods,’ and two workshops on RAPID, and development of an MOU with the
Ljubljana University of the exchange of educational and research collaborations.
Revised and Corrected, Nov. 2019 23