Event
MSE Seminar Series: Michael McHenry
Friday, September 6, 2013
1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.
Room 2110, Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Bldg
JoAnne Kagle
301-405-5240
jkagle@umd.edu
Nanocomposite Magnets for Power Electronic Applications
Michael McHenry
Professor
Materials Science and Engineering Department
Carnegie Mellon University
Recent USDOE workshops highlight the need for advanced soft magnetic materials leveraged in novel designs of power electronic components and systems for power conditioning and grid integration. Similarly soft magnetic materials figure prominently in applications in electric vehicles and high torque motors. Dramatic weight and size reductions are possible in such applications. Nanocomposites also hold potential for applications in active magneocaloric cooling of such devices. Bulk and thin film soft magnet sensors can contribute to the search for oil and critical materials. Opportunities for state of the art soft magnetic materials to impact such applications have been helped by investment by USDOD Programs and other world wide efforts to advance these materials for applications in military electric vehicle technologies.
This talk will focus on the framework for developing high frequency (f) magnetic materials for grid integration of renewable energy sources bridging the gap between materials development, component design, and system analysis. Examples from recent efforts to develop magnetic technology for lightweight, solid-state, medium voltage (>13 kV) energy conversion for MW-scale power applications will be illustrated. The potential for materials in other energy applications (motors, cooling, sensors, RF metal joining, etc.) will also be discussed. The scientific framework for nanocomposite magnetic materials that make high frequency components possible will be presented in terms of the materials paradigm of synthesis → structure → properties → performance. In particular, novel processing and the control of phase transformations and, ultimately, nanostructure have relied on the ability to probe structures on a nanoscale. Examples of nanostructural control of soft magnetic properties will be illustrated.
About the Speaker
Michael E. McHenry is Professor of Materials Science and Eng. (MSE), with an appointment in Physics at Carnegie Mellon. He graduated with a B.S. in Metallurgical Eng. and Materials Science from Case Western Reserve in 1980. From 1980 to 1983 he was employed as Process Engineer at the U.S. Steel Lorain Works. In 1988 he earned a Ph.D in Materials Science and Eng. from MIT. He was a Director's Funded Post-doctoral Fellow at Los Alamos Lab from 1988 to 1989. He has expertise in the area of nanocrystalline magnetic materials including soft magnetic nanocomposites, faceted ferrite nanoparticles and materials for power conversion, biomedical, energy and data storage applications. His research involves rapid solidification processing, plasma and solution synthesis of nanoparticles, magnetic field of processing materials, structural characterization by x-rays and electron microscopy and magnetic properties characterization as a function of field, temperature and frequency. He directed a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) on high temperature magnetic materials for aircraft power applications and currently leads an ARPA-E program in magnetic materials for power electronics. He has served as proceeding Editor, Publication Chair and a member of the Program Committee for the Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) and Intermag Conferences. He has published over 250 papers and owns two patents in the field. He has co-authored, with Marc DeGraef, the textbook Structure of Materials, Cambridge University Press, 2007 with a second edition in 2012.
