Better, Stronger, Lighter Armor

Kaushik Bhattacharya, Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Professor of Materials Science, is the Caltech lead on a $90 million U.S. Army Research Laboratory funded program to improve protective gear and vehicles for soldiers. "…studying materials in very extreme conditions is an area where Caltech engineering really stand out," says Bhattacharya. "The tools we bring, on both the theoretical and experimental sides uniquely bridge deep fundamental principles with unprecedented application.” [Caltech Feature]

Along with Bhattacharya, William Goddard III, Dennis Kochmann, and Michael Ortiz will work on the theory side of the problem, using a range of tools developed at Caltech over the last two decades to accurately model the behavior of materials from the subatomic level all the way to the scale of bulk materials. On the experimental side, Guruswami Ravichandran will investigate how a material deforms, or changes shape, at different scales and temperatures when struck by a high-speed projectile. Meanwhile, Julia Greer will look at the deformation and mechanical properties of materials at the nanoscale.