Mission
Our group is committed to conducting scientific research on structural integrity in responding to harsh environments, resilient civil and military structures, and food insecurity, as well as training students with fundamental knowledge of structural mechanics, cutting-edge technology, and effective communication skills. We promote multidisciplinary research and education through collaborations with researchers from distant disciplines in Architecture, Agriculture, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Material Science, and Mathematics. We demonstrate the importance of our service to the university and professional societies.
Vision
Composites are formed by combining multiple constituent materials with different chemical and physical properties and distinct geometrical features. The hierarchical and heterogenous structures of composites offer great design flexibility for achieving desired performances for load bearings, sensors, actuators, and energy storages, to name a few, in numerous applications, from household appliances to outer space structures. However, the intricate microstructures and variations in composites’ constituent properties present many challenges in manufacturing composites and assessing their performances, which are changing over time.
Our group focuses on developing mathematical models and performing simulations guided by observations and experiments to explore the role of structural geometries at various length scales and nonlinear viscoelastic responses of constituents on the transient performance of composite structures for infrastructure, aerospace, naval, and soft robotic applications, and of grass crops. We study the durability of polymer composites undergoing heat conduction and diffusion of fluid, phase transformations of active materials (i.e., shape memory polymers and ferroelectric composites) and during polymer and composite processing, hydrolysis process of biodegradable materials, shape reconfigurable of viscoelastic composite structures, wave propagation in nonlinear viscoelastic composites, and biomechanical properties of plant stems.