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Material Measurement Laboratory /Materials Measurement Science Division

Security Technologies Group

The Security Technologies Group conducts research and develops and disseminates the measurement science to support the development of performance-based standards for and promote the advancement of the technologies used in trauma-mitigating materials and material systems, the sensing of concealed threats and contraband, advanced composites, high-performance materials, safety, security, and forensics.

Our group supports the development of performance-based standards for technologies used by law enforcement, corrections, emergency response, and the military; and advances these technologies to support the needs of these stakeholders by leading standards development organizations to develop standards and conformity assessment programs and establishing reference measurement facilities. We perform basic phenomenology and measurement science research to support the advancement and application of ballistic-resistant and trauma-mitigating materials, concealed object sensing and imaging, high-strength polymeric materials, and advanced composites.

Projects and Programs

Hierarchical Materials

Ongoing
The STG develops the methods and metrology that will lead to the understanding of the structure-property relationships of hierarchical composites in real medical PPE or protective applications, which heretofore has been lacking. This work establishes in situ monitoring of advanced manufacturing...

Metrologies for Non-linear Materials in Impact Mitigation

Ongoing
Overview This project develops fundamental structure-property measurements on model materials and novel material chemistries from quasi-static to dynamic rates. The goal is to foster a materials by design approach for novel energy dissipation and force re-direction mechanisms. Processing-Structure...
Schematic of low-melting point alloy particles (top-left) mixed with a thermoplastic elastomer (top-right) and processed into printable material for fused filament fabrication and pellet extrusion. A filament-based 3D printing setup (lower-left) feeds material through rollers into a heated nozzle, depositing material onto a print bed. A pellet-extrusion setup (lower-right) feeds pellets into a hopper, moves them through a heated barrel, and extrudes through a nozzle onto a bed.

Multifunctional 3D Printable Polymer-Metal Composites

Ongoing
1. Phase-Change Polymer–Metal Composites with Tunable Thermal Conductivity Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) have positioned metals and polymers as two key materials. Typically, AM of these two materials involves incompatible methods and conditions. This project addresses that challenge...
STG

Safety and Security Technologies

Ongoing
The safety and security of citizens is enhanced when law enforcement and criminal justice agencies and the military use the appropriate and properly performing equipment and technologies. To ensure these entities have the necessary equipment, the STG conducts and performs research to advance these...

News and Updates

Publications

Digital Volume Correlation Challenge 2.0: A Comprehensive Dataset for Digital Volume Correlation Benchmarking

Author(s)
Zixiang Tong, Yujie Zhang, Edward Ando, Bin Chen, Brendan Croom, John Dabiri, Christian Franck, Matthew Fu, Helena Jin, Orion Kafka, Sriram Kunnoth, Thao Nguyen, Jacob Notbohm, Mohak Patel, Mainak Sarkar, Angkur Shaikeea, Jing Zhang, Alexander Landauer, Jin Yang
Background: Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) is a powerful experimental technique for quantifying 3D full-field volumetric displacements and strains. In light...

Control of Dynamic Composites through Filler Surface Chemistry

Author(s)
Neil Dolinski, Lily Alperstein, Ran Tao, Anthony Kotula, Hojin Kim, Kyle Petersen, Elina Ghimire, Charlie Lindberg, Julia Murphy, Kexin Li, SJ Sibener, Aaron Forster, Stuart Rowan
The addition of hard fillers to polymeric networks allows for enhancement of mechanical properties, generally at the expense of extensibility. In the case of...

Tools and Instruments

Reference Ballistic Chronograph Figure 1

Reference Ballistic Chronograph

The NIST-developed reference ballistic chronograph (RBC) provides repeatable measurements of the speed of a bullet that will impact a test article, such as
X-ray backscatter systems

X-ray Backscatter Systems

X-ray backscatter systems are used for the screening of personnel for hidden weapons and other contraband. Unlike conventional radiographic x-ray systems
Rubber Process Analyzer

Rubber Process Analyzer

The TA Instruments RPA elite rubber process analyzer (RPA) is a strain-controlled rotational shear rheometer for the characterization of polymers, composites

Awards

Contacts

Group Leader (acting)

Office Manager

Group Safety Representative

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