Biography
Steven Mates obtained a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UC San Diego in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State in 1998. His dissertation focused on the gas dynamics of liquid metal atomization for the powder metallurgy industry. Steve joined the Metallurgical Processing Group in 1999 as an NRC post-doc under Dr. Stephen Ridder to work in areas of thermal spray deposition and atomization of liquid metals, concentrating on optical spray diagnostics including high speed optical pyrometry, spray modeling and control, and compressible flow.
In 2004 Steve joined the Materials Performance Group, bringing his experience in high speed optical diagnostics, including pyrometry, and mechanics to bear on high temperature, dynamic material deformation measurements using a novel electrically-pulse heated Kolsky bar to aid machining research. He also has led an externally funded project on the dynamic material behavior of frangible and non-frangible bullets for the Office of Law Enforcement Standards at NIST to aid next-generation soft body armor standards development. Currently Steve is applying high speed digital image correlation techniques to study the dynamic deformation of tissue simulant materials, ceramic armor materials and whole bullets using the Kolsky bar.
Research Interests
mechanical properties under high loading and heating rates, Kolsky bar metrology, soft body armor, digital image correlation, inverse problems, atomization of liquid metals, optical flow visualization
