Faculty to advance materials through NSF awards
Monica Cooney
Sep 25, 2025
Enhancing next-generation rotating detonation engine materials
GPS tracking is an important part of the growing satellite and space economy, creating the need for advancements in propulsion technologies to meet the demands of these systems. The Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) is one emerging technology that has the capability to deliver satellites with more precise orbits and less fuel consumption and emissions. While this method has potential to improve processes, there are challenges related to designing materials systems that can optimally perform under the extreme engine conditions faced in deployment.
Mohadeseh Taheri-Mousavi, assistant professor of materials science & engineering, is part of a team of multi-institution researchers addressing these challenges in a NSF DMREF funded grant for their project, "Thriving While Detonating – Materials for Extreme Dynamic Thermomechanical Performance."
Through the four-year, $2 million project, Taheri-Mousavi will engage with collaborators at Lehigh University, led by principal investigator Natasha Vermaak, as well as University of California Irvine (UCI) to investigate the development of structural systems that are resistant to high-frequency, high-amplitude thermomechanical loads for propulsion and power applications with a focus on RDEs. The project also includes collaborators from the Air Force Research Laboratory and industry stakeholders in order to facilitate the translation of their materials and tools into application.
“Our integrated approach of using experimental research, simulations, and AI tools will result in a better understanding of how we can efficiently improve the advanced structural alloys that are crucial to RDEs,” Taheri Mousavi said.
Within the project, she will be responsible for the creation of a generative AI multi-agent framework that will enable a closed-loop design of copper-based alloys for extreme dynamic environments. The design will be executed both through additive manufacturing methods - cold spray at UCI and directed energy deposition at CMU.
Understanding fatigue behavior in additively manufactured alloys
Mechanical failure, or fatigue, occurs in all materials and is a limitation that impacts all structures and devices. Many aspects of what causes fatigue are yet to be fully understood. As additive manufacturing (AM) becomes more commonplace in developing components utilized in our technologies and structures, experimental observations have suggested that metallic alloys made in this way can exhibit fatigue strength that exceeds that of conventionally made counterparts in some scenarios, and in others the AM alloys underperform.
Through the “Structural Alloys for Fatigue Endurance (SAFE)” DMREF project, professor Anthony Rollett will work with a team of investigators from California Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, and McMaster University to develop a new data-driven approach based on the notion that the spread of fatigue can be associated with particular aspects of defects and microstructure. By understanding this relationship, the team will create an integrated database and knowledge map that considers how material and processing parameters, microstructure, comprehensive mechanical characterization, post-failure analysis and computational experiments impact the fatigue behavior of additively manufactured structural alloys.
“From bridges to jet engines to smartphones, the impact of fatigue in materials creates challenges across our society,” said Rollett. “This project will bring us closer to understanding what causes materials to break down, and how we can adjust the materials to be more reliable.”
New techniques and equipment that facilitate testing and sectioning of materials will allow the team to collect 3D images of the microstructures and detailed data about the crack initiation sites to enable the creation of this database. The new methodologies that will be developed in this framework will focus on Ti-6Al-4V, an alloy widely used in aerospace applications.
Driving discovery in defects
Ferroelectric wurtzites are materials that exhibit spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by applying an external electric field. While they have potential to reduce computational energy consumption and enable advanced communication technologies, implementation of these new materials has been limited by a lack of understanding of defects within the crystal structure and how they affect functionality.
The DMREF project “Incorporating Disorder and Defects in the Design of Ferroelectric Nitrides” will seek to capture defect interactions and their resulting impact on the materials’ properties. MSE department chair Elizabeth Dickey will contribute her expertise in atomic-scale imaging to this effort in collaboration with leaders in materials simulation, fabrication and testing at the Colorado School of Mines, Rensselaer Polytechnic University and Kiel University in Germany.
The project aims to bridge the gap between computational studies and real materials by treating defects as components of complex alloys. By analyzing how these defects interact in high concentrations, the researchers will seek to predict material behaviors such as the electric field needed to flip the polarization state, how defect concentrations change over time, and what causes materials to break down.
“I’m excited to work with this international team of experts who will play an important role in the developing novel materials for more efficient microelectronics,” said Dickey.
Partners from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and an industrial advisory board will also assist in scale-up and deployment efforts in this project, as the findings will be valuable to the devices that they seek to enhance.