Directory profile for Dr. Nilesh Kumar

Dr. Nilesh Kumar is an assistant professor in the department of metallurgical and materials engineering at The University of Alabama since August 2018. Prior to this, he was a post-doctoral research associate at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and the University of North Texas in Denton. He obtained his doctorate degree in materials science and engineering from Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla.

A common theme that cuts across all the research work Kumar has carried out so far is establishing correlation among processing (thermo-mechanical, friction stir processing, and laser), microstructure (grain-size, dislocations, and precipitates), and mechanical properties (strength, ductility, creep, creep-fatigue, residual stress, and stress corrosion cracking) in metallic materials (aluminum alloys, magnesium alloys, austenitic stainless steels, titanium alloys) used in transportation and power-generation industries.

At present, his group is investigating temperature-dependent plastic deformation and stress corrosion cracking behavior of high entropy alloys. His group uses advanced characterization tools such as in-situ SEM-based tensile testing frame, digital image correlation, and electron backscattered diffraction in their research to establish processing – microstructure – mechanical properties correlation.

He has published 32 papers in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored three books, and contributed one handbook chapter. Kumar is a member of several scientific organizations and has been a reviewer for more than a dozen scientific journals. The details of group members, research projects, and recent publications can be found at nkumar.people.ua.edu.