Background:

Simon S. Wang received his BEng degree in Mechanics of Solids from Tsinghua University in 1982. He then worked as an assistant lecturer and lecturer at Hebei University of Engineering in China and studied MSc course at Tsinghua University, and English language course in Beijing College for Coal Mining Industry Managers from 1983 to 1985. He then came to the Department of Civil Engineering at Birmingham University in August of 1985 as a visiting scholar and registered as an external PhD student of Birmingham University at Tsinghua University jointly supervised by supervisors from both universities between 1986 and 1989. He obtained his PhD degree from Birmingham University in 1990, immediately followed by six years Post-Doctoral research fellowship. He joined Loughborough University as a Lecturer in 1996.  His earlier research work between 1985 and 1996 focused on developing accurate, efficient and powerful numerical methods for mechanical analyses of plate and shell structures made from fibre-reinforced laminated composite materials. The mechanical problems include: (1) hyper-sonic aero-dynamic flutter, (2) parametric resonance, (3) impact response, (4) vibration and vibration control, (5) buckling, post-buckling, failure, etc. Since 1996 his major research interests have been focused on the mechanics of fracture and delamination in layered composite materials.  Since 2008 in particular his research interests have been attracted to (1) mixed-mode-fracture partition theory for interface fractures and (2) the mechanics of spontaneous formation and spallation of various thin film blisters of thickness ranging from micro-meters to nano-meters.  World leading breakthroughs have been achieved in both areas.

Qualifications:

• BEng 1982, Tsinghua University
• PhD 1990, Birmingham University

Key Awards:

• Science, Engineering and Technology Award, 2009.

Outline of main research interests:

• The mechanics of interface fracture in layered materials
• The mechanics of formation and spallation of various thin film blisiters

Research groups

• Mechanics of Materials and Light Weight Structures

Key research achievements

Development of Accurate, Efficient and Powerful Numerical Methods and Software

• The developed methods and the companion computing software were routinely used in Farnborough Defence Agency for buckling and post-buckling analyses of aircraft structures made from fibre-reinforced laminated composite materials.

Discovery and Development of Powerful Orthogonal Pure Fracture Mode Partition Theory

• A powerful mixed-mode-fracture partition theory using orthogonal pure fracture modes are discovered and developed.
• ‘Unsolvable’ problems claimed previously and unsolved problems before were solved.
• Technical Committee 4 of the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS TC4) organized a numerical round-robin to examine the developed theory together with the well-known theories from Harvard University and Imperial College. Around 10 research institutions and 30 academic researchers globally participated.
• Loughborough theory gives the most accurate predictions of interfacial fracture toughness for generally laminated composite laminates using very thorough and comprehensive experimental test data from Imperial College and from Syracuse University. 
• The theory has been successfully applied to determine the interface adhesion toughness between multilayer graphene films and silicon oxide substrates. The theoretical predictions agree very well with experimental test data. The work is published in Nature Communications (see publications).
• The discovery and development are in a world leading position.

Discovery and Development of the Mechanics for Spontaneous Formation and Spallation of Thin-Film-Blisters in Thin-Film/Thick-Substrate Material Systems

• A new mechanism and theory are discovered and complete closed form solutions are obtained for straight and circular blisters.
• Unexplained experimental observations are explained and are in an excellent agreement with theoretical predictions (see publications).
• Worm-like or Telephone-cord-like blisters are most frequently observed, most interesting and most challenging blisters in thin films of thickness ranging from micro-meters to nano-meters. They were firstly observed in 1962 and have attracted tremendous attention from researchers. For the first time, the conditions of their formation, height, width, wave-amplitude and wave-length are obtained with complete closed form solutions. Excellent agreements are observed between experimental test data and theoretical predictions.
• The theory has been extended to thermal barrier coatings.  Again, excellent agreements are observed between experimental test data and theoretical predictions.
• The discovery and development are in a world leading position.

Plenary Lectures in High Quality International Conferences to Report The Above Discoveries 

• Plenary Lecture on Delamination Propagation in Composites in the 16^th International Conference in Composite Engineering, Kunming, China, July, 2008.
• Plenary Lecture on Fracture Mode Partition Theory in the 8^th International Conference on the Far East and Oceanic Fracture Society, Kuala Lampur Malaysia, June, 2010.
• Plenary Lecture on Mixed Mode Delamination in Composites in the 16^th International Conference on Composite Structures, Porto, Portugal, June, 2011. 
• Plenary Lecture on Mixed Mode Fracture in First World Conference on Fracture and Damage Mechanics:  Metals, Glass, Ceramics, Semi-conductors, Polymers, Alloys, Composites, Nano-composites, Gels, and Adhesives (FRACTURE 2014), Kottayam, India, August, 2014.
• Plenary Lecture on the Mechanics of Interface Fracture in Layered Composite Materials in the 14^th International Conference on Fracture, Rhodes, June, 2017. (The highest quality in fracture mechanics, held every 4 years).
• Plenary Lecture on Telephone Cord Blisters Driven by Pockets of Energy Concentration in the 3^rd Chinese-France International Symposium on Damage and Fracture, Beijing, China, August, 2017.
• Plenary Lecture on the Mechanics of Interface Fracture in the 1st International Conference on Theoretical, Applied and Experimental Mechanics, Paphos, Cyprus, June, 2018.

Current teaching responsibilities:

• TTP402 Body Engineering
• TTC068 Crashworthiness
• TTC053 Stress and Structural Analysis
• TTB107 Vehicle System and Loading

Yuan, B., Harvey, C.M., Thomson, R.C., Critchlow, G.W., Rickerby, D., Wang, S. (2019) Spontaneous formation and morphology of telephone cord blisters in thin films: The Ω formulae. Composite Structures, 225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2019.111108

Yuan, B., Harvey, C.M., Thomson, R.C., Critchlow, G.W., Rickerby, D., Wang, S. (2019) A new spallation mechanism of thermal barrier coatings and a generalized mechanical model. Composite Structures, 227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2019.111314

Harvey, C.M., Wang, B., Wang, S. (2017) Spallation of thin films driven by pockets of energy concentration. Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics, 92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tafmec.2017.04.011

Wood, J.D., Harvey, C.M., Wang, S. (2017) Adhesion toughness of multilayer graphene films. Nature Communications, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02115-w

Wang, S., Harvey, C.M., Wang, B., Watson, A. (2015) Post-local buckling-driven delamination in bilayer composite beams. Composite Structures, 133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.08.012

Harvey, C.M., Wood, J.D., Wang, S. (2015) Brittle interfacial cracking between two dissimilar elastic layers: Part 1-Analytical development. Composite Structures, 134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.06.080

Harvey, C.M., Wood, J.D., Wang, S., Watson, A. (2014) A novel method for the partition of mixed-mode fractures in 2D elastic laminated unidirectional composite beams. Composite Structures, 116(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2014.05.041

View publications in our central  publications database

External collaborators: 

• Rolls-Royce
• Cranfield University
• Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China
• Tsinghua University, China
• Tongji University, China
• Chinese Academy of Sciences

External roles and appointments:

• Professor at School of Machinery and Equipment Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China.
• University Advisor at Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China.
• Chief editor of the World Journal of Engineering
• Editor of the International Journal of Engineering System Simulation and Modelling
• Session chairman and organiser for several international conferences. Session chairman for International Conference on Composite Engineering (2004, 2008), Session chairman and organiser for the Annual International Conference on Composite Structures (since 2011), Session chairman and organiser for the 14^th International Conference on Fracture (2017), Session chairman and session organiser for the 21^st International Conference on Composite Materials (2017), Session chairman and organiser, member of scientific committee of the 3^rd International Conference on damage Mechanics (2018), Session chairman and organiser, member of scientific committee of the 1^st International Conference on Theoretical, Applied and Experimental Mechanics (2018), Chairman of the 1^st International Symposium on Advanced Materials and Their Engineering Applications (2017),  Chairman of the  2^nd International Symposium on Advanced Materials and Their Engineering Applications (2018).
• Member of European Structural Integrity Society Technical Committee 4 member.
• Frequent paper review for many major international journals on analytical, computational and experimental mechanics of composite materials and structures for static, dynamic and fracture problems. Reviewer of Books for Chinese Scientific Publish Press.
• Reviewer of EPSRC research proposals.
• Reviewer of European research project proposals.
• PhD external examiners for Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton, Portsmouth,   Warwick Universities and Nottingham University.
• Invited lectures in many universities including Imperial College, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Aeronautical and Astronautical University, Northwesten Polytechnical University, Hebei University of Engineering, etc.
• Joint research collaboration with Harvard University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Aeronautical and Astronautical University, Tongji University, Jiao Tong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Hebei University of Engineering, etc.
• Member of Scientific Committee of the 3^rd International Conference on Damage Mechanics (ICDM-3), Shanghai, China, June, 2018.
• Member of Scientific Committee of the 1^st International Conference on Theoretical, Applied and Experimental Mechanics (ICTAE_1), Paphos, Cyprus, June, 2018.
• Editor of Special Issue for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters: The Properties of Thin Films.