Jacob Gissinger Uses Advanced Computer Modeling to Show How Aircraft Coating Materials Hold Up Under Pressure
Military pilots and equipment face some of the world’s most punishing environments. But what happens when an aircraft’s protective coatings — meant to shield the plane’s nose and wings during high-speed flight — start to wear down and even disintegrate?
That’s the challenge Jacob Gissinger, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Stevens Institute of Technology, has taken on during his 2025 Summer Faculty Fellowship with the U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF).
Sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the program brings academic researchers to DAF facilities for 8 to 12 weeks of collaborative, hands-on research. Its goals include advancing and strengthening professional relationships, enhancing faculty research capacity, increasing awareness of Air Force research needs and encouraging ongoing research at participants' home institutions.
From June through August, Gissinger is conducting research at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Dayton, Ohio. His project, “Modeling Degradation and Ablation of Surface-Coated Carbon in Extreme Air Force Environments,” uses computer simulations to study how heat, friction and chemical reactions degrade the coatings applied to carbon components in high-speed aircraft.
“The last thing a pilot wants is for the skin of an aircraft to disappear while traveling faster than the speed of sound,” Gissinger said. “The plane’s support structure often includes pure carbon, which is light and strong, but it burns in oxygen-rich environments, so it’s a very real threat. We’re using simulations to predict how long a specific coating will last without failing at a particular temperature.”
That ablation, or erosion, isn’t always bad. In fact, for single-use spacecraft, it’s designed to carry away heat. But for reusable systems like hypersonic aircraft, it’s not an option. Yet even high-quality materials can fail at the junction where two materials meet.
“Interfaces are the belle — and the bane — of materials science,” Gissinger said wryly. “At high temperatures, the chemical reactions at that boundary are continuous and complex. In addition to accurately representing the extreme chemical physics, our model needs to accurately capture atomic-level reactions while still predicting real-world behavior.”
For that, Gissinger is using a method called reactive molecular dynamics, which allows researchers to simulate chemical reactions at the atomic scale. Through digital models, he can painstakingly position every atom and molecule to reflect the real structure, and then analyze how the system behaves under stress.
“Putting all the atoms together in a realistic way is always difficult,” he said. “But it’s exciting when you finally see a configuration come together, validate the setup and start to extract useful data.”
His results could help experimental teams more quickly determine which coatings are worth pursuing, saving time and money on lab testing and flight trials. Ultimately, the work aims to extend the lifespan of aircraft materials and improve performance in increasingly high-speed, high-heat environments.
And while the primary focus is high-speed military flight, the benefits may ultimately benefit commercial and industrial applications, from insulation and battery fire containment to firefighter gear.
Gissinger’s involvement in the fellowship began at a national American Chemical Society conference with a chance conversation with research scientist Vikas Varshney, who is now his AFRL advisor.
“There is perhaps no better place to be in terms of technical resources and expert collaboration,” says Gissinger. “The realization that technology AFRL recently developed is being flown on military aircraft was inspiring. It’s exciting to contribute to both fundamental science and real-world innovation, and that’s a perspective I’m looking forward to sharing with my lab team and my students at Stevens.”
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