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.
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.
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