Manufacturing has been a central focus of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, going back to the 1800’s. Today, researchers study every aspect of manufacturing and materials processing, from automotive and aerospace to electronics and medical applications.
By studying the fatigue and fracture of materials, Purdue researchers can pinpoint what needs to be strengthened, and how much. In nanomanufacturing, new breakthroughs enable devices to do things unthinkable just a few years ago. And in the theoretical realm, manufacturing processes and systems are always being refined, allowing companies to build the best products in the best way with the best people.
Predictive, multi-scale modeling and simulation of microstructure evolution in confined granular systems, with an emphasis in manufacturing processes and the relationship between product fabrication and performance.
Application areas of interest include:
(i) particulate products and processes (e.g., flow, mixing, segregation, consolidation, and compaction of powders),
(ii) continuous manufacturing (e.g., Quality by Design, model predictive control, and reduced order models), and
(iii) performance of pharmaceutical solid products (e.g., tensile strength, stiffness, swelling and disintegration), biomaterials (e.g., transport and feeding of corn stover) and energetic materials (e.g., deformation and heat generation under quasi-static, near-resonant and impact conditions, and formation and growth of hot spots) materials.