I want to research in
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Solid Mechanics
While textbooks define Solid Mechanics as the study of the motion, deformation, or fracture of solid materials to external and internal forces -- the breadth of this field is enormous. Solid Mechanics has implications for manufacturing, biomedicine, and much more.
Faculty members in the Solid Mechanics area study fundamentals of continuum mechanics, advance concepts in the field of micromechanics, advance numerical methods such as finite element and phase field approaches, and connect CAD to stress analysis. They work with analytical, numerical and experimental approaches.
In the application of Solid Mechanics faculty members seek to advance the reliability of microelectronic devices, the energy storage in batteries, the behavior of soft and hard tissue, the manufacturing of powder based products, and shape-changing structures.
Faculty in Solid Mechanics
- Adaptive structures
- Mechanical metamaterials
- Robotic materials
- Programmable structures
- Multistable structures
- Structural nonlinearity
- Elastic instabilities
- Structural dynamics
- Nonlinear vibrations
- Modeling of nonlinear systems
- Structural dynamics and localization
- Flow-induced vibrations
- Impacting systems
- Bifurcations and chaos
- Predictive computational tools for biological adaptation processes
- Tissue expansion
- Wound healing
- Reconstructive surgery optimization
- Numerical methods for biological membranes
- Bio-inspired and mechanically adaptive electronics
- Multimaterial additive fabrication
- Soft actuators (artificial muscles)
- Wearable actuators (haptics)
- Polymer design and polymer physics
- Deformation sensors and transistors
- Fluid Mechanics
- Soft Matter
- Granular Flow
- Microfluidics
- Nonlinear Waves
- Computational Science
- Vibrations and nonlinear dynamics
- Smart material systems
- Non-pneumatic tires
- Optimization of mechanical systems
- Additive manufacturing
- 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.
- Biotransport phenomena
- Cell-fluid-matrix interaction
- Microfluidics
- 3D printing of soft materials
- Cooperative learning
- Acoustics
- Vibrations
- Active noise and vibration control
- Smart materials
- Intelligent structures
- Thermal stresses, thermal fracture and fatigue of advanced materials, in particular high temperature materials, ceramic coatings.
- Mechanical behavior, design and remodeling of biological tissues, effect of stresses on remodeling, microbiomechanics of cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, tissue engineering
- Computational solid mechanics
- Multiscale modeling of materials
- Finite Elements
- Dislocation dynamics
- Reliability of electronic interconnects
- Shock compression in solids
- Phase transformations
- Energetic materials
- Wearable biomedical devices
- 'Crack’-driven transfer printing technology
- Scalable manufacturing technology
- Mechanics and materials for flexible/stretchable electronics
- Bio-inspired designs
- Surface engineering and multifunctional materials
- Convergent Manufacturing for Industry 5.0: hybrid manufacturing processes, heterogeneous materials, and bio-inspired designs
- Systems integration, productization, and production
- Heavy-duty machines: machining, lubrication, and corrosion
- Heterogeneous and hierarchical integration (mechanical-electrical-optical and nano-micro-meso-macro)
- Precision agricultural and food: cellular agriculture, vertical farming, micro-production, and resilience
- Frugal engineering, social innovations, and social equity
- Manufacturing in space
- Cell and tissue mechanics
- Human injury
- Adult stem cell-based tissue regeneration
- Biophysics and biotransport
- Nonlinear Dynamics and Vibration
- Resonant Micro/Nanosystems
- Microscale Sensors and Actuators
- Contact mechanics
- Stresses, fatigue and friction of rolling/sliding
- Micro-mechanics of boundary and mixed lubrication regimes
- Spall initiation and propagation
- Surface science and damage
- Dynamics of ball and rolling element bearings and rotating systems
- Friction induced vibration and squeal in dry contacts
- Friction and wear of dry and lubricated contacts
- Virtual tribology
- Dry and lubricated fretting wear
- MEMS for in-situ monitoring of tribological contacts
- Discrete element modeling
- Design
- Structural Health Monitoring
- Wave propagation
- Structural dynamics and vibration control
- Adaptive structures
- Periodic structures and acoustic metamaterials
- Energy harvesting
- Thermoacoustics
- Solid mechanics, multiscale and multiphysics modeling.
- Design of engineering material systems.
- Fracture and fatigue.
- Microarchitectured materials.
- Biomechanics of soft and hard tissues.
- Computational solid mechanics
- Computational geometry
- Microelectronics reliability
- Scanning Probe Microscopy
- Metrology
- Optomechanics
- Mass spectrometry
- Contact mechanics
- Discrete element method (DEM) modeling for particulate systems
- -- model development, e.g., fibrous particles, particle breakage, particle shapes
- -- application to manufacturing, e.g., storage and flow, blending, segregation, drying, coating, wet granulation
- Finite element method (FEM) modeling of powder compaction
- -- e.g., roll compaction, tableting, picking and sticking
- Multi-scale modeling (FEM combined with DEM) of powder dynamics
- -- model development and application to hopper flow, blending, and segregation
- Deformation, stress, plasticity, fracture
- Multiscale modeling, first-principles, molecular dynamics simulations, and finite element modeling
- In-situ experiments
- Mechanics of redox active materials - Li-ion batteries, Na-ion batteries, all-solid-state batteries
- Mechanics of polymeric materials - organic electrochromics, superelastic organic semiconductors