Mechanics of Materials and Structures

Mechanics of Materials and Structures research in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) centers on the development of new materials; the nondestructive evaluation of structures; the repair and retrofit of structures using advanced plastic composites; and the synthesis and evaluation of innovative designs.

Projects dealing with the mechanics of materials focus on high-performance concrete (fiber-reinforced and silica fume composites), advanced plastic composites, intelligent construction materials, manipulation of materials at the nanoscale and the atomistic modeling of proteins and other natural materials.

Structures research includes projects on computer-aided structural engineering, intelligent structural engineering system and innovative concepts in high performance structures. Research in nondestructive evaluation focuses on infrastructural systems, including concrete and steel structures and soils.

Extensive experimental and numerical studies are being conducted in the area of nondestructive evaluation methods of infrastructural systems, including radar measurements and imaging of concrete structures using high-frequency wideband radar waves, numerical techniques in shallow geophysics, and development of statistical tests to evaluate experimental field data and ultrasonic methods for composite materials.

Representative Research Areas

(*) Measurement of dielectric properties of concrete for use in image reconstruction
(*) Nondestructive evaluation of concrete structures using wideband microwave techniques
(*) Numerical modeling as well as experimental studies, including laboratory and in situ measurements
(*) Development of ultrasonic phased array system and inspection of large-scale structures and composite materials
(*) Fracture mechanics of silicon and silica
(*) Molecular modeling of calcium silicate hydrate particles and concrete
(*) Materials science and mechanics of natural and biological materials (elasticity, deformation and fracture)
(*) Large-scale atomistic, molecular and multiscale modeling, supercomputing