Professor Paul Hazell
BEng (Hons)
EngD
Paul Hazell is a professor of impact dynamics in the School of Engineering and Technology (SET) at UNSW Canberra.
His main research interests centre on the dynamic behaviour of materials and structures that have been subjected to impact / shock loading. He has also been actively involved in discovering methods for improving the performance of lightweight armour systems including ways of defending against attack from shaped-charge weapon systems and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
Paul's teaching experience includes courses on armour systems design, military vehicle lethality & survivability, computational modelling techniques, shock and impact mechanics, impact dynamics, ballistics, firepower technologies, lethality and survivability and weapon technologies. He has won several awards for his 'motivated' lecturing style. In 2023 he won the UNSW Students' Choice Teaching Award for his 'inspirational nurturing skills' with HDR students. See here for a YouTube video on the award details.
Paul is the Director of the Impact Dynamics Research Group (IDRG) and Lab at UNSW Canberra, and has published extensively in the fields of shock, impact and ballistics. He is also on the Editorial Board for the journals International Journal of Impact Engineering (Elsevier), Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group), Biomimetics (MDPI), and Shock Waves (Springer) and wrote the book ARMOUR: Materials, Theory, and Design (CRC Press, 2/e, 2022,), and a book on guns, entitled: 'The Story of the Gun: History, Science, and Impact on Society’ (Springer, 1/e, 2021).
Paul has appeared in several documentaries as an expert commentator, usually around war machines. These have included:
- Secret Weapons of World War II, WildBear, Published: 2024.
- How Factories Changed the World, WildBear, Published: 2020. E.g., see a YouTube example here.
- Machinery of War, WildBear, Published: 2019. E.g., see a YouTube example here.
- Combat Countdown, Discovery Military Channel (US), US, Wag TV, Published: 2012. E.g., see a YouTube example here.
- Weapons of War, National Geographic / History Channel, Published 2005. E.g., see a YouTube example here.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Teaching / presentation awards
- UNSW 2023 Students' Choice Teaching Award Winner, 23 November 2023. See here for a YouTube video on the award details.
- NUS Best Teacher Award for contributions to an MSc course at the National University of Singapore in recognition of “dedication and commitment”, 28 March 2006.
- Winner (1st prize) of the National Lecture Competition (UK) sponsored by the Institute of Materials, with a talk on the ‘High Velocity Attack of Ceramic Armour’, 24 April 1997.
- Winner (1st prize) of The Institute of Materials South East Region (UK) Final of the National Lecture Competition (Class II), 11 April 1997.
- Winner (1st prize) of the Oxford Metallurgical Society Lecture Competition, 18 March 1997.
Recent research / paper awards (won by Paul's students!)
- Bogahawaththa M; Mohotti D; Hazell PJ; Wang H; Wijesooriya K; Lee CK, 2024, 'Energy absorption and mechanical performance of 3D printed Menger fractal structures', Engineering Structures, 305, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2024.117774. Editors' Featured Paper Award for Engineering Structures, Vol. 305, 2024.
- Serubibi A; Hazell PJ; Escobedo JP; Wang H; Oromiehie E; Prusty BG, Analysis of AFP manufactured fibre metal laminate structures under impact loading, ACAM10 – Best postgraduate student paper, 2021.
- Md Ashraf Islam, A Kader, A. Brown, P J Hazell, J P Escobedo-Diaz, X-ray and Microstructural Study of a Set of Cast Aluminum Alloys, TMS - EPD Materials Characterization Best Poster Award - 2018.
- Md Ashraf Islam, A. Brown, P J Hazell, J P Escobedo-Diaz, M Saadatfar, Deformation Mechanisms of Closed-Cell Aluminium Foams During Drop Weight Impact, TMS - EPD Materials Characterization Best Paper Award – 2017.
- Z Li, A Khennane, PJ Hazell, A Remennikov, Numerical modeling of a hybrid GFRP-concrete beam subjected to low-velocity impact loading, Best Paper Award at The 8th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM2017), Guilin, China – 2017.
Paul's work can be divided into five key themes:
- Shock compression of condensed matter. This includes phase changes and spall as well as examining new experimental techniques.
- Dynamic behaviour of porous materials and structures. This includes looking at ways to mitigate impact energy.
- Bio behaviour and biomimicry. How can we learn from nature to inform the design of impact resilient materials and structures?
- Penetration mechanics. Understanding how projectile penetrate into a range of matter, from low velocity to hypervelocity. This includes cratering mechanisms.
- Constitutive model development. This includes developing new models to understand dynamic processes and feeding those models with experimental data.
Paul is currently a Deputy Program Manager for Australian Composites Manufacturing.
Paul is an Editorial Board member for the following journals:
International Journal of Impact Engineering (2023 - present)
Scientific Reports (2022 - present)
Biomimetics (2022 - present)
Shock Waves (2016 - present).
Paul is also the executive guest editor for the International Journal of Impact Engineering for the Special Issue on the Impact Response of 3D-Printed Materials and Structures.