Dr. Jaafar A. El-Awady, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been named a 2015 recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award from the Mechanics of Materials program in the Civil, Mechanical, & Manufacturing (CMMI) Division. This Faculty Early Career Development award recognizes junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within their institutions.
This five year grant of $500,000 will support Dr. El-Awady’s research titled “Identifying the Micro-mechanisms Leading to Hydrogen-Induced Intergranular Fracture in Metals”. The aim of this research is to develop microstructurally based computational methods to fundamentally identify the effect of hydrogen on the deformation and fracture of metals used in energy generation, conversion or storage systems. This research will also contribute to engineering practice via advances in the structural integrity of energy systems. The education and outreach tasks through this grant will contribute to efforts aiming to improve STEM achievement in Baltimore elementary public schools with a high minority student population.
Dr. El-Awady’s research group focuses on the development and implementation of advanced, multiscale, predictive computational tools, coupled with microscale experimental techniques, to describe and link the mechanics of materials across multiple length and time scales. Current research projects include predicting surface roughness evolution under thermo-mechanical cyclic loading, characterizing the deformation and failure of coatings for high temperature coatings, hydrogen-induced intergranular fracture, deformation mechanisms in hexagonal-closed-pack metals, and predicting plasticity and failure of epoxy polymers. His research is of interest for many aerospace, automotive and energy applications.
Dr. El-Awady completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Cairo University in Egypt, then earned his doctoral degree also in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angles (UCLA). Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University in 2010, Dr. El-Awady spent two years as a visiting scientist at the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory.