
ABOUT
Naresh Thadhani is a Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech (GT). He joined the GT faculty in 1992, after six-years in the Center for Explosives Technology Research at New Mexico Tech, and two years as a post-doc at CalTech. He received his B.E. in 1980 from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, India, M.S. from South Dakota School of Mines, and Ph.D. from New Mexico Tech, all in Metallurgical Engineering.
Dr. Thadhani’s research focusses on the fundamental mechanisms of physical, chemical, and mechanical changes under high-pressure shock-compression, and the deformation and fracture response of metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites subjected to ballistic impact and high-strain-rate loading. He has led significant advancements in the understanding of shock-induced phase transformations and mechanical properties of bulk metallic glasses; design, development, and characterization of structural energetic materials, and the shock-compression response of highly heterogeneous (granular) materials through meso-scale computational simulations and experimental studies using novel optomechanical pressure sensors and interferometry approaches.
At Georgia Tech, he has developed a state-of-the-art high-strain-rate laboratory which includes 80-mm and 7.62-mm diameter single-stage gas-guns, and a laser-accelerated thin-foil set-up, to perform impact experiments at velocities of 70 to 1200 m/s. The experiments employ time-resolved diagnostics to monitor shock-initiated events with nanosecond resolution employing piezoelectric and piezoresistive stress gauges, multi-beam VISAR interferometry, multiplexed Photonic-Doppler-Velocimetry, and high-speed digital imaging, combined with the ability to recover impacted materials for post-mortem microstructural characterization and determination of other properties. He also has computational capabilities employing continuum simulations for design of experiments and development and validation of constitutive equations, as well as for meso-scale discrete particle numerical analysis (using CTH and ALE3D codes) to determine the effects observed during shock compression of heterogeneous materials.
Dr. Thadhani has advised 15 visiting scientists/post-docs; 25 Ph.D and 18 M.S degree students; and mentored 50+ undergraduate researchers. His current group includes 7 Ph.D. students, 1 Research Engineer, and 4 undergraduate research assistants. He has attracted research funding exceeding ~$20M from federal agencies including the AFOSR, ARO, DARPA, DTRA, ONR, NSF, as well as from several national DoE and DoD laboratories and industries. He has co-edited 12 books/proceedings, published more than 170 paper papers in refereed journals (including several invited review articles) and 150 in conference proceedings, and presented more than 150 invited talks/seminars. He has served or is serving on review boards including the National Academy of Science panel at the Army Research Laboratory (2015, 2016, and 2018), and academic program reviews at Penn State University, Universities of Texas at Austin, Dallas, and at El Paso, University of Notre Dame, University of Florida, and the University of California multi-campus national lab collaborative research program review.
Dr. Thadhani is recipient of 2018 TMS Leadership award, Fellow of ASM International and American Physical Society, and Academician of EuroMediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences.
PUBLICATIONS & PATENTS
- N.N. Thadhani and M.A.Meyers, "Kinetics of isothermal martensite transformation," Progress in Materials Science, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 1-38, 1986.
- N.N. Thadhani, "Shock-induced Chemical Reactions and Synthesis of Materials," Progress in Materials Science, Vol. 27 (2), pp. 117-226, 1993.
- N.N. Thadhani, "Mechanisms of Shock-Assisted and Shock-Induced Chemical Reactions in Elemental Powder Mixtures," J. of Applied Physics, Vol. 76 (4), pp. 2129-2138, 1994.
- Thadhani, N.N.; Jin, Z.Q. Shock-Induced Synthesis of Nanocomposite Magnetic Materials. In Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology.; Contescu, C., Putyera, K., Eds.; Taylor Francis Group: NY 2006. http://www.dekker.com/sdek/abstract~db=enc~content=a713626862
- D.E. Eakins and N.N. Thadhani, “The Shock Compression of Reactive Powder Mixtures,” International Materials Reviews, Vol. 54(4), (2009), pp. 181-213.
- M.Martin and N.N. Thadhani, “Mechanical Properties of Bulk Metallic Glasses,” Progress in Materials Science, Vol. 55; (2010) 759–839.
- C. Dai and N.N. Thadhani, “Shock compression response of magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 59, No. 2, 2011, pp. 785-796.
- K. Neel and N.N. Thadhani, “Shock compression response of alumina-THV composites,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109 (1), 2011
- D.A. Fredenburg and N.N. Thadhani, “High-pressure equation of State of Properties of Bismuth Oxide,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 110 (2011) 0635101-5
- E. Herbold, N.N. Thadhani, J.L. Jordan, “Effects of processing and powder size on microstructure and reactivity in arrested reactive milled Al+Ni,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 59 (17), October 2011 pp.6717-6728.
- C. T. Wei, S. Du, E. Vitali, F. Jiang, D. J. Benson, K. S. Vecchio, N. N. Thadhani, M. A. Meyers, “Quasi-static and Dynamic Response of Explosively Consolidated Metal-Aluminum Powder Mixtures,” Acta Materialia, 60 (2012) 1418-1432.
- P. Specht, N.N. Thadhani, and T. Weihs, “Configurational Effects on Shock Wave Propagation in Ni-Al Multilayer Composites,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 111 (7), April 1, 2012.
- C. Wehrenber, B. Zande, S.G. Sankar, and N.N. Thadhani, “Shock Compression Response of α''-Fe16N2 nanoparticles,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol, 111 (8), April 15, 2012.
- D. A. Fredenburg and N.N. Thadhani, “On the applicability of the P-alpha and P-lambda models to describe the dynamic compaction response of highly heterogeneous powder mixtures,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113 (4), Jan 2013.
- R.Whelchel, G. Kennedy, S. Dwivedi, T. Sanders, and N.N. Thadhani, “Spall Behavior of Rolled Aluminum 5083-H116 Plate,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113 (23) 2013.
- D. A. Fredenburg and N.N. Thadhani, “Predicting the shock response of heterogeneous powder mixtures,” Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 113 (22), 2013.
- D Scripka, G LeCroy, CJ Summers, NN Thadhani, Spectral response of multilayer optical structures to dynamic mechanical loading,” Applied Physics Letters 106 (20), 201906, 2015
- Merit G Schumaker, John P Borg, Gregory Kennedy, Naresh N Thadhani, “Mesoscale Simulations of Dry Sand,” Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Volume 1, Pages 379-388, 2015.
- P. Xiao, Z. Kang, A.A. Banisihev, J. Breidenich, D.A. Scripka, J.M. Christensen, C. Summers, D. Dlott, N.N. Thadhani, and M. Zhou, Laser-excited optical emission response of CdTe Quantum Dot/polymer nanocomposite under Shock Compression, Applied Physics Letters, 108 (1) 011908, 2016.
- M.G. Schumaker, J.P. Borg, G. Kennedy, N.N. Thadhani, “Mesosclae Simulations of Dry Sand,” Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Vol. 1, 2015, pp. 379-388
- S.C. Kelly and N.N. Thadhani, Shock Compression Response of Highly Reactive Ni+Al Multilayered Thin Foils, Journal of Applied Physics, 119 (9), January 2016,
- R. L. Whelchel, T. H. Sanders Jr., N. N. Thadhani, D. S. Mehoke and K. A. Iyer, “Dynamic Yielding and Fracture of Grade 4 Titanium,” Journal of Applied Physics, 119(11), 115901, 2016.
- BW White, CA Crouse, JE Spowart, B Aydelotte, NN Thadhani, Impact Initiation of Reactive Aluminized Fluorinated Acrylic Nanocomposites, Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials 2 (2), 259-271, 2016
- Z Kang, AA Banishev, G Lee, DA Scripka, J Breidenich, P Xiao, Dana Dlott, Chris Summers, M. Zhou, N.N. Thadhani, Exploration of CdTe quantum dots as mesoscale pressure sensors via time-resolved shock-compression photoluminescent emission spectroscopy, J., of Applied Physics, 120 (4) 043107, 2016.
- G Lee, DA Scripka, Z Kang, NN Thadhani, CJ Summers, “Asymmetrical optical microcavity structures for dynamic pressure sensing: design, fabrication, validation,” Optics express 24 (20), 23494-23504, 2016
- PE Specht, TP Weihs, NN Thadhani, Interfacial Effects on the Dispersion and Dissipation of Shock Waves in Ni/Al Multilayer Composites, “Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials, 2(4) 500-510, 2016.
- PE Specht, TP Weihs, NN Thadhani, “Shock compression response of cold-rolled Ni/Al multilayer composites,” Journal of Applied Physics, 121 (1), 015110 2017.
- JW LaJeunesse, M Hankin, GB Kennedy, DK Spaulding, MG Schumaker, J. Borg, S. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, and N.N. Thadhani, “Dynamic response of dry and water-saturated sand systems,” Journal of Applied Physics 122 (1), 015901, 2017
- SY Holguin, CF Anderson, NN Thadhani, MR Prausnitz, “Role of cytoskeletal mechanics and cell membrane fluidity in the intracellular delivery of molecules mediated by laser‐activated carbon nanoparticles,” Biotechnology and bioengineering, 2017
- G Lee, DA Scripka, B Wagner, NN Thadhani, Z Kang, CJ Summers, “Design and fabrication of distributed Bragg reflector multilayers for dynamic pressure sensing,” Optics express 25 (22), 27067-27076, 2017
- SY Holguin, MD Gray, P Joseph, NN Thadhani, MR Prausnitz, “Photoporation Using Carbon Nanotubes for Intracellular Delivery of Molecules and Its Relationship to Photoacoustic Pressure,” Advanced healthcare materials, 2018
- SM Sharma, K Mishra, O Rodriguez, WR Whittington, P Allison, SP Bhat, A.M. Gokhale, and N.N. Thadhani, “Effects of Strain Rate on Mechanical Properties and Fracture Mechanisms in a Dual Phase Steel,” in Dynamic Behavior of Materials, Volume 1, 209-216, 2018.
- D. A. Scripka, G.H. Lee, Z. Kang, C.J. Summers, and N.N. Thadhani, “Time-resolved spectral response of asymmetrical optical microcavity structures under laser-driven shock compression,” AIP Advances, 8, 015021 (2018).
- A. Bryant, D. Scripka, F. Alamgir, N.N. Thadhani, “Laser shock compression induced crystallization of Ce3Al metallic glass,” Journal of Applied Physics,” 124 (3), 035904, 2018.
- S.Y. Holguin, N.N. Thadhani, M.R. Prausnitz Effect of laser fluence, nanoparticle concentration, and total energy input per cell on photoporation of cells,” Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine 14 (5), 1667-1677, 2019
EDUCATION & AWARDS
- B.E. Metallurgical Engineering, 1980, University of Rajasthan, India
- M.S. Metallurgical Engineering, 1981, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
- Ph.D. Physical Metallurgy, 1984, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Processing of non-equilibrium phases and alloys with unique microstructures through shock-induced phase transformations and chemical reactions
- Probing mechanical properties of metals, ceramics, polymer, and composite materials under dynamic high-pressure and high-strain-rate impact loading
- Design, testing, and analysis of energy-releasing and energy-absorbing materials