Mechanical Engineering PhD student Seo Young Ahn, student of associate professor Pania Newell, won the Best Paper Award at the Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference. This conference is hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers to bring together research and practitioners to showcase fundamental and applied contributions to engineering mechanics and related fields.
Ahn’s paper looks at complex porous materials and the variations in pore morphologies across scales. These variations drive diverse functional properties, but their structure/property relationships remained underexplored at nano and micro scales. The study uses nano-CT and micro-CT for structural characterization, while grid nanoindentation (applying a small load toa sharp indenter tip and measuring the resulting deformation) and micropillar compression (compressing small, pillar-shaped samples to determine their stress-strain behavior) are used to investigate the mechanical characteristics of SBA-15, a mesoporous silica material.
“Through our findings, the understanding of the interplay of structural features across scales requires integrating top-down and bottom-up approaches to capture emergent behaviors,” said Ahn. “These findings will aid in informing the design of materials with improved mechanical and functional performance for various engineering applications.”
Ahn highlighted two key takeaways from the study. First, the multiscale mechanical properties of SBA-15 are influenced by hierarchical structural interactions rather than isolated features. Two, higher-resolution imaging provides more detail, but it doesn’t necessarily improve accuracy due to overlooked artifacts.
“It feels good to have my hard work recognized externally,” said Ahn.
You can find more about Ahn’s work through the Integrated Multi-Physics Laboratory website.