CEE Seminar: Functionally Graded Porous Structures

Abstract: Porous structures made of foams, lattices and honeycombs are gaining traction in various industrial sectors and are featured with light weight, high specific stiffness, good energy absorption and novel thermal, biological, acoustic characteristics. They give unique flexibility in performance-tailoring and possess great potential in multi-functional applications. Highlighted by non-uniform cellular geometries, functionally graded (FG) porous structures are an important extension of the existing porous structural forms and potentially provide enhanced properties. This seminar focuses on the design and analysis of FG porous structures, providing the big picture in terms of their theoretical, numerical and experimental studies. 

Bio: Chen is an ARC DECRA fellow and a lecturer at the school of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Sydney). Chen has a diverse research background across structural, mechanical and material engineering. With a focus on the development of novel composite and structural forms, he is best known for his contributions to the advancement of functionally graded (FG) porous structures, where he has published six highly cited papers (WoS). Chen aims to bridge the micro-macro divide in the mechanical analysis of porous composite materials/structures and to push this field towards multi-functional applications and commercializations.