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
- Renewable Energy Materials (physics-based energy yield predictions, sustainable PV and energy storage materials, recycling)
- Electro-Optical-Thermo-Mechanical Reliability (in-situ and in-operando accelerated stress tests)
- Heterogeneous Integration & Advanced Packaging (sub-10 μm pitch interconnects, low-loss interposers)
- Harsh Environment Electronics Integration (high temperature Pb-free solders and nano-thermal interfaces)
- Thermal Physics ... Heat Moving Energy
- Spectroscopy ... "Seeing" energy with light
- Nanophotonics ... Pushing light to see more
- 2D Materials ... Creating functionality by losing dimension
- DNA nanotechnology
- Advanced materials
- 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
- Soft hydraulics
- Fluid dynamics
- Non-Newtonian fluid mechanics
- Particulate and multiphase processes
- Computational and data-enabled science & engineering
- Scientific machine learning
- Nonlinear waves
- Composites materials design and manufacturing
- Sustainable and recyclable-by-design polymers and composites
- Polymer processing and characterization
- Composites recycling
- Hybrid manufacturing systems
- Multiscale modeling
- Damage mechanics
- 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.
- 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
- Sustainable manufacturing
- Environmental life cycle assessment
- Mechanics of multilayered systems
- Adhesion in paints and coatings
- Lightweighting strategies for transportation
- Mechanobiology and biomechanics
- Diagnostics
- Bacterial biophysics
- Micro/nano fluidics and transport
- Biotechnology development
- Physicochemical hydrodynamics
- Measurement tools
- Biomedical devices and wearables
- 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 and experimental solid mechanics focused on fatigue, fracture, and multi-physics phase evolution problems
- Computational techniques including Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Isogeometric Analysis (IGA), geometric modeling, CAD and optimal design
- Heterogeneous Integration and Advanced Electronics Packaging with a focus on thermomechanical behavior, reliability, and electrical-thermal-mechanical co-design
- 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