Dr Yongfeng Zhang research interest lies in materials aging and degradation in extreme conditions such as radiation, high temperature, stress and corrosive media using microstructure-based modeling. In such harsh environments, materials are subject to significant property degradations induced by a variety of mechanisms, which limit their performance. By tracking microstructure evolution and constructing structure-property correlations, the objective of Dr. Zhang’s research is to uncover the degradation mechanisms in materials under extreme conditions. The research outcome will help predict the degradation rates and guide the development of novel materials for applications in extreme conditions.
Dr. Zhang obtained his PhD degree in 2009 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After that he joined Idaho National Laboratory, INL. Prior to join University of Wisconsin, He is a senior Staff Scientist at INL and leads the Computational Microstructure Science Group in the Fuel Modeling and Simulation Department.