Dr. K. (Kunal) Masania

Dr. K. (Kunal) Masania

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Expertise

Additive manufacturing   Digitalisation
Hierarchical materials   Bio-inspired materials   Mechanical behaviour Sustainability 

Expertise

His primary focus is to re-imagine how composites are made today, with an emphasis on structuring hierarchical materials in three dimensions using design inspiration from the natural world.

With the clear goal of producing structural details with complexities that are not possible any other way, his group that works on topics from material synthesis, additive manufacturing and digital fabrication of materials and their structures, to mechanics and mechanical behaviour.

Awards

o    Shortlisted for Spark Award 2020, best invention at ETH Zürich.

o    Top research team: 3D Printing Industry Awards shortlist, 2019.

o    Best poster presentation by supervised student at SCCER Mobility Annual conference, ETH Zürich, 2018.

o    Best presentation by supervised student at the British Society of Strain Measurements, Experimental Mechanics Conference at Imperial College London, UK, 2018.

o    JEC Innovation Award for an automated production system for fully recyclable, complex bicycle components, 2016.

o    MaP Career Seed Grant, ETH Foundation for promising young researchers to transition to academic careers, 2015.

o    School of Engineering (FHNW) award for research excellence, 2014.

o    Best Poster at the 36th annual meeting of the Adhesion Society, 2013.

o    School of Engineering (FHNW) award for teaching excellence, 2013.

o    Nominated for the Unwin PhD Prize, Viva 18th June 2010.

o    Royal Academy of Engineering UK travel award, 2009.

o    ACMA POLYCON and Composites '09 best technical paper, 2009.

o    Defence Science and Technology Laboratory UK prize for best Master's Thesis, 2006.

Biography

Since Jan 2020, I am the head of a new research group in Aerospace Structures and Materials. Our primary focus is to re-imagine how composites are made today, with an emphasis on structuring hierarchical materials in three dimensions using design inspiration from the natural world.

We are an interdisciplinary group that works on topics from basic material synthesis, additive manufacturing and digital fabrication of materials and their structures, to mechanics and characterisation of their mechanical behaviour. Our research covers aspects that (a) are fundamental, (b) help further our understanding of the materials and structures around us and (c) leverage new technologies to realise sustainable composite materials with a broad range of applications whilst focusing on high quality science and engineering.

You can read about some of our latest work by checking Twitter, Google Scholar, Researchgate or our website.

As we build up our group and infrastructure, several highly ambitious and interdisciplinary projects are available! Please feel free to contact me for more information.

Biography

Twitter, Google Scholar, Researchgate, linkedin

Since January 2020, Prof. Kunal Masania is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering.

After studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Loughborough, Kunal carried out his PhD at Imperial College London on nanoscale toughening of thermosetting polymers, with ground-breaking work on size effects that has since been widely adopted by academia and industry. 

At the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern (FHNW) Switzerland he developed a variety of novel processing approaches for high-performance composites, such as rheo-kinetic control, compression RTM, highly reactive polymers, discontinuous composites and continuous natural-fibre thermoplastic composites. With numerous applications in aerospace, marine and automotive today, his work has been pushing the limits of how we fabricate composites.

Upon joining the Complex Materials Group at ETH Zürich, he became interested in bio-inspired approaches for 3D printing, biological materials and nacre-like composites and now looks forward to unlock the full potential of digital fabrication.

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Research interests

We develop hierarchical bioinspired materials with contradicting properties (e.g. tough and strong, stiff and dissipative). Using 3D printing, we exploit directed- & self-assembly of natural or carbon-based materials across multiple length scales in order to study the role of anisotropy and porosity and apply these microstructural designs to large structures.

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Room: 62.0.32