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Headshot of Han-Gyu Kim

Han-Gyu Kim

Assistant Professor

Biography

Han-Gyu Kim joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in August 2026. Prior to this position, he was an assistant professor in aerospace engineering for five years at Mississippi State University, where he received back-to-back Faculty of the Year Awards (2023–2024 and 2024–2025) for excellence in teaching and mentoring. For aerospace and space applications, he collaborated with AFRL, NASA, and FAA to design enhanced composite structures and develop high-fidelity damage prediction tools for hypersonic aerostructures and advanced air mobility vehicles in extreme and coupled loading environments. This effort was also carried out in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. For civil engineering, he collaborated with Yonsei University, Korea to develop carbon-fiber rebars in concrete systems. Lastly, for interdisciplinary research, his NSF-funded research focused on developing and applying carbon-fiber rotor sleeve structures for high-speed electric motors to address the global supply chain issues of rare-earth materials and enhance motor efficiencies. He spent nearly 7 years in the civil engineering industry, including managing a large-scale underground metro project in Singapore.

Research

  • Advanced composite materials
  • Aerostructures for hypersonic vehicles
  • Nonlinear structural dynamics
  • Fracture mechanics and fatigue
  • Multiscale and multi-physics damage modeling
  • Nondestructive damage evaluation
  • Structure-fluid interactions

Education

  • PhD in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering and Mechanics), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2019
  • MS in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering and Mechanics), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2017
  • BS in Civil Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, 2006

Awards and Recognitions

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

Publications

For a more complete and up-to-date list of Kim's publications, please see Google Scholar.

Selected Publications (*Corresponding Author)

  • Kim, H. G.*, White, J. A., Huberty, W., & Bounds, C. (2026). Experimental characterization of mode-II interlaminar fracture and damage arrestment in geometrically scaled stitched resin-infused composites. Composites Part A, 109786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2026.109786  
  • Black, J., Premo, R., Kim, H. G.*, Pereira, J. M., Ricks, T., Goldberg, R., & Littell, J. (2026). Experimental Characterization of the Material Properties of T700GC/LMPAEK Thermoplastic Composites for LS-DYNA MAT213 Modeling. NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Technical Memorandum, 20260000246. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20260000246 
  • 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, 326, 111361. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2025.111361 
  • 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 the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (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 
  • 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   
  • 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, Impact factor 7.1), 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, Impact factor 4.9), 439, 362-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsv.2018.09.056 

 

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