Aging Aircraft
The purpose of the research is to develop technologies for the life prediction and maintenance of aging aircraft systems for military and civil aircraft. Included in this overall purpose is the review of industry practices in airframe structural design, maintenance, inspection, and assessment of trends in advanced technology development for durability and damage tolerance structural design and analysis methodology. In this research the university community interacts with the aircraft industry to improve structural integrity of aging aircraft. [Professor Jerina]

Biometric Material
Understand the mechanism of actuation mechanics of forisome, a non-living plant protein that can be used for sensing and actuating. [Professor Shen] 

Constitutive Modeling for Engineering Design
The objective of this research is to formulate constitutive modeling methods for engineering design problems such that an acceptably accurate and reliable prediction of the physical behavior can be obtained given uncertainties in material property information and modeling. The accuracy of the model will form a basis for assessment of the error inherent in material property information, modeling, and numerical solution of engineering problems. [Professor Jerina]

Granular Materials
The study of dynamical behavior of collections of beaded chains and fibrous materials inside rotating cylinders to gain insight of the behavior of chain-like or rod-like molecules of micro- and macro-scopic systems (in collaboration with Eliot Fried). Most suitable for undergraduate research projects.

High Cycle Fatigue
New integrated high-performance turbine engine technology goals are to identify single- and dual-rotor engine concepts that have a thrust-to-weight ratio at twice the current levels and to demonstrate the required material/structural and component aerodynamic technologies for validation in advanced turbine engines. This research is to characterize low-density, high-temperature, and high-strength materials for high-performance turbine engine applications to achieve aggressive thrust-to-weight goals. [Professor Jerina]

Intermetallic Compounds
The focus of this research program is on enhancing the ductility and toughness of structural alloys based on the ordered intermetallic compounds TiAl, NiAl, and MoSi2, both intrinsically and by composite toughening through the incorporation of a reinforcement phase. [Professor Sastry]

Metal-Matrix Composites
The goal of this program is to develop an integrated approach combining innovative low-cost manufacturing with ultralight high-performance product for the fabrication of high-performance structural components. Gas atomization and semi-solid particle deposition are used for the fabrication of high-modulus, high-strength metal-matrix composites. Ongoing studies include physics of gas atomization and semi-solid particle deposition, matrix-reinforcement interactions, and mechanical behavior of metal-matrix composites. [Professor Sastry]

Nanocrystalline Materials
Conventionally produced intermetallics and composites are brittle and have low fracture toughness values. We are investigating the feasibility of extending particle and microstructural refinement down to the range of nanometers to produce significant improvements in fabricability, strength, ductility, and toughness. [Professors Sastry and Axelbaum]

Nanomaterials
Optimize materials synthesis technique by understanding self assembly and rheology of complex fluids to fabricate mesoporous thin films (in collaboration with Sureshkumar, supported by NSF/NER). [Professor Shen]

• Kenneth Jerina - Ageing Aircraft, Constitutive Modeling for Engineering Design, High Cycle Fatigue, Solder Joint Technology, Thermo-Mechanical Fatigue
• Shankar Sastry - In-situ Composite Solders, Intermetallic Compounds, Metal-Matrix Composites, Nanocrystalline Materials
• Amy Shen - Complex fluids, Rheology, Microfluidics, Novel materials (Nano- and Biomimetic- materials), and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
  
  Soft Matter Lab and our Research Activity