Graduation Season: Spring 2023
Mathew Schey graduated with a PhD, with his disseration titled: "Effects of Manufacturing on the Entanglement of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites". Additionally, Samuel Huvitz graduated with a Masters, with his thesis titled: "Design, Manufacturing, and Evaluation of Functionally Graded Adhesive Joints using Radiation Sensitive Adhesives". Sam is currently working in Utah at Northrup Gumman and Matt is in Ohio at the Air Force Research Lab. We will miss both of them!!
Husseini wins Solvay Best Student Paper Award
PhD student Jamal Husseini won the Solvay Best Paper Award at the American Society of Composites 37th annual technical conference in Tucson, AZ. Hi had some stiff competition in some of his labmates, but pulled it off!
Lab hangout 2022!
While Dr. Mollenhauer from AFRL visited and Matt defended his proposal, we got together and had a nice little BBQ!
First post-covid lab hangout!
Relaxed pandemic restrictions and high rate of vaccinations among the group made an outdoor gathering possible. We got together for a brunch, with many of us meeting for the first time in person. We enjoyed eating, kayaking, a walk in the woods, e-bike riding, and some mountain biking. No one was seriously injured, so it was a success!
Jamal awarded NSTGRO Fellowship!
Jamal Husseini was awarded the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities Fellowship for his proposal "Integration of Manufacturing-Induced Variation in Multiscale Analysis of Composite Aerospace Structures". This fellowship is a mark of distinction, and awarded because of his exceptional background and potential for research.
NASA Project
Farhad Pourkamali and Scott Stapleton were just awarded a 3-yr, 518k project with NASA titled “Multi-Scale models based on Machine Learning and a Fiber Network Model”, funded through the NASA “Transformational Tools and Technologies (TTT)” project, Subtopic: “Ultra Efficient Multiscale Methods and Methodologies”. The goal of this project is to use machine learning to replace microscale models of fiber reinforced materials to enable efficient failure prediction of aerospace structures at multiple scales.
Microstructure Quantification
Marianna Maiaru, Scott Stapleton Fuqiang Liu and Tibor Beke were awarded a 3-year grant from AFOSR and NSF entitled Microstructural Quantification and Virtual Reconstruction of Polymer Matrix Composites within the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) Approach. Work will be done to quantify the local fiber position and generate descriptive metrics based on mathematical and physical features. Furthermore, scanning technology will be used to determine the local variation of matrix properties, which will be linked to simulations of the curing process.
Wind Turbine Blades Year 3
Scott Stapleton and Co-PI Marianna Maiaru were awarded a 3rd year grant from WindSTAR, an industry/university cooperative research center funded by the National Science Foundation. The project investigates residual stress buildup in thick adhesive joints and developes a computational tool to allow wind turbine manufacturers to optimize curing time without inducing unintended damage in the bondline. Technical monitors for the project are GE, Hexion, and TPI. Additionally, Maiaru (PI) and Stapleton were awarded a grant to optimize cure cycles for blade repairs
Army Helmets
Murat Innapolat and Co-PI Scott Stapleton were awarded a year-long grant from the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center to use machine learning coupled with dynamic finite element models to explore the design of soldier protection helmets.
Wind Turbine Blades
Scott Stapleton and Co-PIs Christopher Hansen and Marianna Maiaru were awarded a 2nd year grant from WindSTAR, an industry/university cooperative research center funded by the National Science Foundation. The project investigates thermo-mechanical characteristics of thick adhesive joints and developes a computational tool to allow wind turbine manufacturers to optimize curing time without inducing unintended damage in the bondline. Technical monitors for the project are GE and Hexion.
NSF Grant Awarded
Scott Stapleton and Co-PI Daniel Schmidt from plastics engineering were awarded a 3-year, $318k grant to develop a novel system of grading the properties of adhesives across a joint to improve the strength and stability of adhesive joints. A full description can be found here.
UML Receives Flexible Electronics Award
The project “Test Methods for Electrical and Mechanical Durability of Flexible/Rigid Interfaces in Multi-Axial Fatigue and Dynamic Loadings” from PI Alireza Amirkhizi, Co-PI Scott Stapleton and Claire Lapont with several industrial partners was funded from the NextFlex project call 2.0. The 1.5 year project involves developing characterization methods for flexible electronic interfaces based on modelling input parameters.
Papers Published
The ASM Lab recently published three papers about fiber-scale RVEs, multi-scale textile modelling for heart valves, and experimental characterization of paper. Congratulations to Yujun Li and Deepanshu Sodhani from the Institute of Applied Mechanics at RWTH Aachen University for being 1st author on two of the publications!
Science Slam
I "volunteered" to take part in the Science Slam during the Young Investigator's Conference in Aachen Germany. It was a blast, and I tried to share the little wisdom I had from my days as a PhD student:) Enjoy!
Heart Valve Paper Published
The Applied Mechanics Lab recently published an article in the Open Access journal Advanced Modeling and Simulation in Engineering Sciences. The paper entitled "Effect of reinforcement volume fraction and orientation on a hybrid tissue engineered aortic heart valve with a tubular leaflet design" compares the effects of using different amounts and orientations of fiber reinforcement on tissue-engineered heart valves. Publishing in an Open Access journal allows everyone to access it absolutely free.
See Article...Big Move
In 4 weeks, we will make the move from RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany to UMass Lowell!
Young Investigator's Conference in Aachen
Counting down the weeks until the 3rd ECCOMAS Young Investigators Conference (YIC). I'm on the organization committee, and it'll really be a fun conference! We have very different activities including a city tour, science slam (I'll post mine later), and Journal Club. Should be a really cool experience, primarily for researchers younger than 35.
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