SPEAKER: Chuck Zhang

ABSTRACT:

Lightweight, high-strength composites manufacturing is a fast-growing industry of enormous importance. Research and advancements have resulted in innovative uses of composites in aerospace, auto, marine, space and sporting goods industries. Recent discovery and insertion of nanomaterials (e.g. carbon nanotubes) further expand capabilities/potential of composites for multifunctional applications. However, these materials are relatively new and their manufacturing often involves multiple complex processing steps. Such issues have created difficulty in comprehensive understanding of the nanomanufacturing processes and the resulting materials, and in turn, have limited their application bases. This presentation will discuss a methodology and on-going research projects in design and manufacturing of a unique nanomaterial, carbon nanotube buckypaper, in the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Department and the High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) at the Florida State University. Special focus of the presentation will be given on the development and application of physics-based process models and experimental data for design of the buckypaper materials with desired properties and the corresponding manufacturing processes. 

Bio: 

Dr. Chuck Zhang is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering. He is also the Deputy Director of the High-Performance Materials Institute (HPMI) at FSU. He received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa and has been with FSU since 1993. Dr. Zhang’s primary research interests include modeling/simulation/intelligent design of composite and nanocomposite materials and their manufacturing processes, scalable nanomanufacturing, multifunctional material development, and geometric tolerancing and metrology. His research projects have been sponsored by a number of organizations including National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), as well as industrial companies such as ATK, Cummins, General Dynamics, GKN Aerospace Services, Lockheed Martin and Siemens Power Generation. Dr. Zhang has published over 120 refereed journal articles and 170 conference papers.