Materials Science and Engineering PhD student, Sharon Park, was recently awarded the APL Graduate Research Fellowship.
This fellowship will support her during her graduate studies at JHU, and offer the opportunity to collaborate with APL scientists to work on additively manufactured refractory alloy systems for military, space, and hypersonic applications. Park was selected for the fellowship after applying during the Spring 2021 semester and giving a research presentation to the APL graduate fellowship committee.
Park will be working with refractory alloys, which can consist of molybdenum, tungsten, niobium, rhenium, and tantalum. These alloys have melting temperatures exceeding 2000 degrees Celsius, with tungsten and rhenium being able to withstand temperatures greater than 3000 degrees Celsius. This makes them ideal for ultrahigh temperature and ultrahigh-speed applications. Additive manufacturing (AM) has introduced a new frontier for the fabrication of these refractory alloys and Park will be working towards finding ways to leverage their unique properties of to optimize their performance after being deployed on a space or aircraft. Additionally, AM allows for the creation of components with a level of complex geometry that is virtually impossible to achieve with other fabrication methods. All of this opens up a unique processing and characterization space for the development of novel additively manufactured refractory alloy systems.
Park has a good deal of relevant experience in the field, including a background in gas atomization and additive manufacturing. Her previous research and publications allowed her to gain unique experience in the full processing cycle.
“This experience will be extremely valuable to me and I look forward to working with and gaining insight from APL scientists.”