Solid Mechanics
Faculty members in Solid Mechanics research are training students to investigate and design such structures as automobiles, ships, airplanes, and appliances to make them more durable, more efficient, and lower cost.
The research interests of the faculty members include computational mechanics, fracture mechanics, fatigue, viscoelasticity, composite mechanics, plasticity, thermomechanics, elasticity, and contact mechanics. These topics are related to the mechanical behavior and fracture of ductile metals, polymers, and composites. Faculty members also conduct research to model the behavior of structural components and manufacturing processes.


MAJOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Studies of:

  • thermoelastic effects leading to nonuniform sliding in automotive brake systems;
    •
  • simulations of sheet forming processes with consideration
    of texture development and failure mechanisms;
    •
  • constitutive modeling of viscoelastic materials for applications to automotive suspension systems with bushings;
    •
  • homogenization design and layered manufacture of mechanical components;
    •
  • software development for arc-welding simulation and optimization;
    •
  • residual stress prediction and fracture characterization of weldment, deformation, and crack-tip fields for rubber-modified plastics;
    •
  • asymptotic growing crack-tip fields in pressure-sensitive materials;
    •
  • cavitation instability in non-linear elastic and elastic-plastic materials;
    •
  • damage criteria for anisotropic sheet metals;
    •
  • mixed mode fracture and multi-axial fatigue theory;
    •
  • durability prediction for structural components.


    • FACILITIES
    The Center for Automotive Structural Durability Simulation features a double tension/torsion testing machine and a Remote Parameter Control (RPC) testing machine for automotive structural components and suspension systems.


    Read about Kourosh Danai, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Massachusetts, Amherst...


    FACULTY
    James R. Barber
    Maria Comninou
    Noboru Kikuchi
    Jwo Pan
    Alan S. Wineman
    Wei-Hsuin Yang


    Research Activities


    Research Introduction | Biomechanics | Design | Dynamics | Vibrations
    Computational Mechanics | Fluid Mechanics | Heat Transfer | Combustion | Thermodynamics
    Manufacturing | Materials | Solid Mechanics | Systems and Control

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