Behnam Pourdeyhimi

Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi joined NC State immediately after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Leeds in 1982.  Soon, he left for other opportunities, Cornell (2 years), University of Maryland (11 years), and Georgia Tech (4 years) before returning to NC State in 1998-199 Academic year.

Behnam is the William A. Klopman Distinguished Professor of Materials in the Wilson College of Textiles at NC State University and is also an adjunct professor in the departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.  He also serves as Associate Dean in the Wilson College of Textiles and is the Executive Director of The Nonwovens Institute.

Early in his career, he focused on the development of tools for characterizing various materials including nonwovens, medical devices, composite materials, etc.  For this body of work, he received the ASTM D-13 Dewitt Smith Medal.  In particular, his work on image analysis won him the Fiber Society Distinguished Scientist award in 1994.  He also was selected as the Fiber Society Lecturer where he traveled broadly to present his work to industry and academia.  He later served also as the vice president, and the president of the Fiber Society.

He is best known for his contributions to nonwovens and establishment and the growth of nonwovens at NC State.  His work in the area of filtration won him the O’ Max Gardner award in 2015 (The Highest award by the University of North Carolina System), and in 2018, he received The Holladay Medal for Excellence (The highest faculty award bestowed by NC State University).  In 2020, Behnam was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors as a Fellow.

He joined NC State in part to take on a leadership role in the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC).  Under his vision, the center morphed into the Nonwovens Institute (NWI). NWI is the largest university-based research institute in the nation across all disciplines.  Today, NWI is the world’s first accredited academic program for the interdisciplinary field of engineered fabrics. Operating on an “Open Innovation” platform, the Nonwovens Institute engages experts from industry and higher education in building next-generation nonwoven applications while also providing training and guidance to the field’s future leaders.

He has published several books and monographs, over 375 refereed journal articles, and over 250 conference presentations. He is the recipient of The Fiber Society Young Distinguished Achievement Award (1994) and Fellowship of the Textile Institute (1994). He served as the President of the Fiber Society in 1995. His students have won several awards, including the Fiber Society Best Paper award and the INTC Best Paper Ward.

Dr. Pourdeyhimi’s research interests are in the area of nonwovens, biomaterials, modeling, image analysis, and filtration. His expertise is recognized by major corporations and leading research bodies around the world. He has acted as a consultant to many bodies and major Corporations.

Academic Degrees

• PhD. Textiles, The University of Leeds, United Kingdom, 1982

Publications

Anisotropic mechanical behaviour of calendered nonwoven fabrics: Strain-rate dependency

Cucumazzo, V., Demirci, E., Pourdeyhimi, B., & Silberschmidt, V. V. (2021), JOURNAL OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS, 55(13), 1783–1798. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998320976795

Development of a novel test method for the measurement of fuzz in nonwovens

Kim, E., Nelson, D. A., & Pourdeyhimi, B. (2021, June 6), JOURNAL OF THE TEXTILE INSTITUTE, Vol. 6. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405000.2021.1939517

Dual-Responsive Microgels for Structural Repair and Recovery of Nonwoven Membranes for Liquid Filtration

Ramesh, S., Davis, J., Roros, A., Eiben, J., Fabiani, T., Smith, R., … Menegatti, S. (2021), ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS, 3(3), 1508–1517. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.0c01360

Meltblown Polyvinylidene Difluoride as a Li-Ion Battery Separator

Luiso, S., Henry, J. J., Pourdeyhimi, B., & Fedkiw, P. S. (2021), ACS APPLIED POLYMER MATERIALS, 6. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.1c00221

N-Halamine Polypropylene Nonwoven Fabrics with Rechargeable Antibacterial and Antiviral Functions for Medical Applications

Ma, Y., Wisuthiphaet, N., Bolt, H., Nitin, N., Zhao, Q., Wang, D., … Sun, G. (2021), ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, 6. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00117

Polymer melting temperatures and crystallinity at different pressure applied

Chen, K., Zhang, W., Yarin, A. L., & Pourdeyhimi, B. (2021), JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE. https://doi.org/10.1002/app.50936

Solution-Blown Poly(hydroxybutyrate) and epsilon-Poly-L-lysine Submicro- and Microfiber-Based Sustainable Nonwovens with Antimicrobial Activity for Single-Use Applications

Dias, Y. J., Robles, J. R., Sinha-Ray, S., Abiade, J., Pourdeyhimi, B., Niemczyk-Soczynska, B., … Yarin, A. L. (2021), ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, 8. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00594

Structure-property relationship of melt spinning polypropylene fibers containing inorganic particulate CaCO3 fillers

Wei, W., Shim, E., Barnes, W., & Pourdeyhimi, B. (2021). [Review of , ]. TEXTILE RESEARCH JOURNAL. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040517520982001

Constitutive modeling of polymers accounting for their hyperelasticity, plasticity, creep and viscoelastic relaxation

Yarin, A. L., Sankaran, A., An, S., & Pourdeyhimi, B. (2020), Polymer Testing, 85, 106444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2020.106444

Durability of Disposable N95 Mask Material When Exposed to Improvised Ozone Gas Disinfection

Dennis, R., Pourdeyhimi, B., Cashion, A., Emanuel, S., & Hubbard, D. (2020), The Journal of Science and Medicine, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.37714/JOSAM.V2I1.37

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Organizations

• TAPPI
• INDA
• INTC
• The Fiber Society
• ASTM
• The Textile Institute (U.K.)

Teaching

• - Microscopy & Image Analysis , Fall
• - Nonwovens Products and Processes , Fall
• - Fiber Science , Fall