Wolfgang Gustav Knauss (born December 12, 1933, in Mandel near Bad Kreuznach) is an American engineer.
Knauss became an assistant professor and carried out research on fracture propagation in viscoelastic materials on behalf of NASA, which was relevant to solid rocket engines.
In 1998 he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions on time-dependent fracture mechanics of polymers, at interfaces and under dynamic loads.
Knauss advised aerospace companies such as Lockheed, Rocketdyne, Aerojet-General, Hercules, General Dynamics, and General Electric (GE Space Division) as well as polymer chemistry companies such as DuPont and Firestone.
The Society for Experimental Mechanics introduced the Wolfgang Knauss Young Investigator Award after him in 2018.