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Han-Gyu Kim, Ph.D.

Han-Gyu Kim

Assistant Professor

Office: 316D Walker Engineering Building
hkim@ae.msstate.edu
Research Group Homepage

Dr. Han-Gyu Kim joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU) as an Assistant Professor in August 2021. His research focuses on developing multi-scale and multi-physics models for the structural design and life prediction of composite structures in hypersonic aircraft. Since 2014, he has collaborated with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Structural Science Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on this long-term effort. He is also working with NASA’s Glenn Research Center and the Federal Aviation Administration to build high-fidelity damage models from multi-scale experimental data for composite structures in space launch and reentry systems, as well as in commercial airliners.

Expanding into interdisciplinary research, Dr. Kim is developing a carbon-fiber composite rotor sleeve for high-performance electric motors with support from the National Science Foundation. Internationally, he is collaborating with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology to investigate high-temperature effects on mode-II interlaminar fracture in composite structures, and with Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea to explore the use of carbon-fiber composite rebars in concrete systems.

Dr. Kim earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Structural Engineering and Mechanics from the University of Washington in 2019, followed by two years as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the William E. Boeing Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the same institution. Before his academic career, he spent six and a half years in the civil engineering industry, where he developed successful business proposals for international infrastructure contracts with governments in Vietnam, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia, and served as a manager for a large-scale underground metro project in Singapore.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering and Mechanics), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2019
  • M.S. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering and Mechanics), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2017
  • B.S. in Civil Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, 2006

Experience

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, Aug 2021 – Present
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Aug 2019 – Jul 2021 (Advisor: Dr. Marco Salviato)
  • Civil Engineer to Manager, GS Engineering & Construction, Seoul, Korea & Singapore, Jan 2007 – May 2013

Research Areas

  • Advanced composite materials
  • Aerostructures for hypersonic vehicles
  • Structural dynamics
  • Multiscale and multi-physics damage modeling
  • Damage progression induced by fracture and fatigue
  • Nondestructive damage evaluation
  • High-reliability low-cost rare-earth free electric motors
  • Stitched resin-infused composites
  • Structure-fluid interactions

Teaching Areas

  • Elasticity
  • Structural analysis
  • Mechanical and structural dynamics
  • Computational and numerical analysis
  • Mechanics of composite materials
  • Fracture mechanics and fatigue

Taught Courses

Undergraduate Courses

  • ASE 4623 Aerospace Structural Design, Fall 2023, 2024, 2025
  • ASE 3243 Aerospace Structural Analysis II, Spring 2023, 2025
  • EM 4133 Composite Materials, Spring 2022, 2024, 2025
  • EM 4123 Introduction to Finite Element Method, Spring 2024
  • EM 3213 Mechanics of Materials, Fall 2021

Graduate Courses

  • EM 6133 Composite Materials, Spring 2022, 2024, 2025
  • EM 6123 Introduction to Finite Element Method, Spring 2024

Academic Recognition

  • Faculty of the Year 2024 – 2025, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, Apr 2025
  • Faculty of the Year 2023 – 2024, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, Apr 2024
  • Research Paper Award, Korean Society for Composite Materials, Apr 2024

Current Postdoctoral Researcher

  • Taehee Lee (Mar 2025 – Present): Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering), Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, Feb 2024

Current Graduate Students

  • Jackob W. Black (4th-year Ph.D. student): NASA Graduate Summer Intern for the Years 2023, 2024, and 2025; Graduate Student of the Year 2024 – 2025
  • Mario Hyung Kyu Choi (1st-year online Ph.D. student): Mechanical Structural Engineer II at Northrop Grumman, CA
  • Allison J. White (2nd-year M.Sc. student)
  • Drew J. Walters (2nd-year M.Sc. student via the Thrive in Five program)
  • Grant A. Custer (1st-year M.Sc. student)
  • Hallie N. Echols (1st-year M.Sc. student): Research Engineer at the Advanced Composites Institute

Previous Graduate Students

  • Joshua M. Bassett (M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering, May 2025)
  • Ryan G. Premo (M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering, May 2024): Aerospace Test Engineer at the Shreveport Air Force Base, LA; Graduate Student of the Year 2023 – 2024
  • Dawson A. Ozborn (Ph.D. student, May 2023 – Dec 2024): 7th/8th-Grade Math teacher at Florence Middle School, Florence, MS
  • Seth E. Patterson (M.Sc. student, Aug 2022 –May 2023): Associate Engineer at Dassault Falcon Jet, Little Rock, AR

Selected Research Grants

  • 2024 NASA EPSCoR Rapid Response Research (R3) Program (Aug 2024 – Aug 2025): Development of Experimental Framework to Characterize Rate and Temperature Dependency in Composite Material Properties for the LS-DYNA MAT213 Model; Collaborator: NASA Glenn Research Center
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) 19-506 Partnerships for Innovation (Mar 2023 – Feb 2026): PFI-RP: High-Reliability, Low-Cost, Rare-Earth-Free Electric Motor for Electrified Transportation Applications; Industrial Partner: Drive System Design, Farmington Hills, MI 48335
  • Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) W81EWF22428002 Advanced and Additive Manufacturing (Mar 2023 – Mar 2026): Data-driven real-time monitoring for additive manufacturing; Recipient/Collaborator: Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, Mississippi State University
  • 2022 NASA EPSCoR R3 Program (Aug 2022 – Aug 2023): Multi-Scale Experimental Characterization of Non-Associative Plasticity Flow Rule Coefficients and Mixed-Mode Traction-Separation Laws for the LS-DYNA MAT213 Model; Collaborator: NASA Glenn Research Center
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-COE-JAMS (Aug 2021 – Feb 2026): Technology Readiness Assessment for Stitched and Unstitched Resin Infusion; Recipient/Collaborator: Advanced Composites Institute, Mississippi State University

International Research Collaboration

  • Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Jeonbuk, Korea (Sep 2023 – Present): Research MOU (Sep 2023)
  • Department of Civil Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea (Jan 2024 – Present): Research MOU (Apr 2024)

Select Publications

  • Kim, H. G.*, Howe, R., Wiebe, R., Spottswood, S. M., O’Hara, P. J., & Salviato, M. (2025). Experimental characterization of cohesive laws for mode-II interlaminar fracture in geometrically scaled composites using through-thickness deformation analysis. Engineering Fracture Mechanics (Elsevier), 326, 111361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2025.111361
  • White, J. A., Huberty, W., Bounds, C., & Kim, H. G.* (2025). Experimental Characterization of Mode-II Interlaminar Failure in Geometrically Scaled Stitched Resin-Infused Composites. In Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE) 2025. https://doi.org/10.33599/nasampe/s.25.0056
  • So, Y., Bae, K. J., Kim, H. G.*, & Yu, J.* (2025). Experimental characterization of mode-II interlaminar fracture and crack arrestment in geometrically scaled stitched resin-infused composites under thermal loading. In SAMPE 2025. https://doi.org/10.33599/nasampe/‌s.25.0002
  • Bassett, J., Sharma, G., Xie, J., Storey, J., Kim, H. G., Stone, T., ... & Mun, S.* (2025). Thermal Calibration of Finite Element Models in Wire Arc Directed Energy Deposition of ER-120S-G Using Thermocouples and Infrared Cameras. In 2025 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Aerospace Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference (ISBN 978-0-7918-8875-9), 88759, V001T03A010. https://doi.org/10.1115/SSDM2025-152032
  • Sharma, G., Bassett, J., Xie, J., Storey, J., Kim, H. G., Stone, T. W., ... & Mun, S.* (2025). Enhancing Wire Arc Directed Energy Deposition Outcomes Through Tailored Dwell Time Allocation. In 2025 ASME Aerospace Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference (ISBN 978-0-7918-8875-9), 88759, V001T03A033. https://doi.org/10.1115/SSDM2025-152730
  • Rahman, M. R., Islam, M. K., Moniruzzaman, M. D., Choi, S.*, Kim, H. G., & Walters, A. (2025). A Ferrite Based Carbon Reinforced Composite Wrapped IPM Rotor Design for High-Speed Traction Applications. In 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), 951-957. http://doi.org/10.1109/APEC48143.2025.10977525 
  • So, Y., Bae, K. J., Kim, H. G., & Yu, J.* (2024). Influence of Thickness and Temperature on Delamination Properties of Stitched Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics. Composites Research (The Korean Society for Composite Materials, ISSN 2288-2111) 37(5), 386-392. https://doi.org/10.7234/composres.2024.37.5.386
  • Black, J., Premo, R., Goldberg, R. K., Ricks, T. M., Lyons, T., & Kim, H. G.* (2024). Multi-scale experimental characterization for LS-DYNA MAT213 modeling of composite structures under high strain rate. In American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Earth and Space 2024: Engineering for Extreme Environments (ISBN 9780784485736), 430-439. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784485736.040
  • Rahman, M. R., Choi, S.*, & Kim, H. G. (2024). A high-speed rare-earth free IPM with carbon composite wrapped rotor. In 2024 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 5017-5023. http://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE55643.2024.10861214
  • Ozborn, D. A., Black, J. W., Huberty, W., Bounds, C., & Kim, H. G.* (2024). Experimental multi-scale characterization of mode-II interlaminar fracture in geometrically scaled stitched and unstitched resin-infused composites. In 2024 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Science and Technology Forum and Exposition (SciTech Forum) (eISBN: 978-1-62410-711-5), 2083. https://doi.org/10.2514/‌6.2024-2083
  • Premo, R. G., Black, J. W., Pereira, M., Goldberg, R. K., Ricks, T. M., & Kim, H. G.* (2024). Experimental Characterization of Non-Associative Plasticity Flow Rule Coefficients for the LS-DYNA MAT213 Model. In 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum (eISBN: 978-1-62410-711-5), 1075. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-1075
  • Watts, H., Premo, R. G., Huberty, W., Bounds, C., & Kim, H. G.* (2024). Experimental investigation of the structural performance of composite structures produced using additive manufacturing. In 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum (eISBN: 978-1-62410-711-5), 2288. https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2024-2288
  • Kim, H. G.*, & Wiebe, R. (2020). Numerical investigation of stress states in buckled laminated composite plates under dynamic loading. Composite Structures (Elsevier), 235, 111743. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2019.111743
  • Kim, H. G.*, & Wiebe, R. (2019). Experimental and numerical investigation of nonlinear dynamics and snap-through boundaries of post-buckled laminated composite plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration (Elsevier), 439, 362-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2018.09.056