Mission

Structures and materials are indispensable components in any mechanical, civil, and aerospace engineering systems and they are largely responsible for major performance improvements in such systems. Recent years have seen many innovative concepts (composite, sandwich, smart, functionally graded, bio-mimic, nano reinforced composite , and etc. ) proposed to develop advanced structures and materials to meet the demanding requirements of high performance, light weight, high controllability, and high reliability imposed on modern and future engineering systems.

However, the extreme heterogeneity and anisotropy of such structures and materials make obsolete the traditional analysis method used for designing homogeneous and isotropic structures and materials. Moreover, advanced structures and materials are usually designed to operate in multiple fields such as thermal, hygroscopic, electric and magnetic fields in addition to the traditional mechanical field. For an engineer to carry out numerous multidisciplinary tradeoffs to seek an optimal product, versatile analysis tools with high-fidelity should be developed to accurately yet efficiently predict the behavior of structures and materials under various envisioned scenarios. It is the mission of this laboratory to create such authentic simulation tools to exploit the potential provided by the various aforementioned novel concepts of advanced structures and materials.

Opportunities

Graduate students having a strong background in one or more subjects in solid mechanics, micromechanics, structure mechanics, mechanics of composites, and computational mechanics and strong programming skills (Fortran 90/95 and c/c++ preferred) are welcome to join us. PhD students have priority for financial support. Please pre-apply online and indicate your interest to work with Prof. Wenbin Yu. If you meet our admission requirements (minimum: GPA 3.0, GRE Verbal 40%, GRE Quantitative 640, and TOEFL 550), the department may pay the application fee for you. Please contact Prof. Wenbin Yu for more details. Undergraduates are also welcome to explore their research topics in the Solid Mechanics and Structures Laboratory. In your communication, you are recommended to write a brief statement of interests appropriately relevant to one of the current research thrusts in the laboratory. This laboratory does not welcome any student who is only looking for a degree. You need to have an ambition for your future and a spirit of meeting challenges and seeking truth.

Current Thrusts

Research Grants/Awards

  1. An Efficient High-Fidelity Model for Sandwich Plates, sponsored by Utah State University New Faculty Research Grant, 05/01/2004-06/30/2005.

  2. Affordable Smart Composite Structures, sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory Skunk Works, 09/01/2004-08/01/2005.

  3. High Frequency Piezoelectric Sensors for Air Quality Monitoring and Aging Solid Rocket Propellant Monitoring (co-PI with Anhong Zhou), sponsored by State of Utah Community/University Research Initiative Grants and ATK, 02/01/2005-02/01/2006.

  4. An Integrated Approach for Efficient High-fidelity Design and Analysis of Intelligent Aerospace Systems, sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory Enabling Technologies, 05/01/2005-04/30/2006.

  5. Modeling & Manufacturing of Multi-Functional MMCs through Ultrasonic Consolidation (co-PI with Brent Stucker and Leijun Li), sponsored by National Science Foundation (DMI-0522908), 8/01/05-7/31/08. With funded International Collaboration Supplement.

  6. NER: Innovative Synthesis and Modeling of Nano-Hydrides by Bulk Mechanical Alloying (co-PI with Leijun Li and Tapas Kar), sponsored by National Science Foundation (CMS-0508205), 8/15/05-7/31/07. With funded REU Supplement.

  7. Sandwich Structures for Minimum Weight Aerospace Systems, sponsored by Space Dynamics Laboratory Skunk Works, 09/01/2005-08/01/2006.

  8. VABS Interoperability Enhancements, sponsored by Boeing Company, 10/01/2005-12/31/2005.

  9. Validation of Comprehensive Multibody Code for the UH-60 Aircraft, sponsored by Sikorsky Aircraft, 10/01/2005-3/30/2007.

  10. A Coupled High-Fidelity Tool for Efficient Multibody Dynamic Simulation of Smart Rotors, sponsored by Army Research Office, 08/01/2006-5/1/2007.

  11. Efficient High-fidelity Multi-Physics Tools for Smart Blade Analysis and Design (with Drs. Hodges and Volovoi of Georgia Tech as co-PI), Task 9 of a grant to the Georgia Tech Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, sponsored by the US Army, 07/01/2006-6/30/2011.

  12. Graphic User Interface for VABS, sponsored by USU Technology Commercialization Office, 07/01/2006-06/30/2007.

  13. Analysis of Composite Rotor Blades and Aircraft Structures, sponsored by Groen Brothers Aviation USA, Inc., 11/16/2006-11/15/2007.

  14. A New Micromechanics Model for Inelastic and Imperfect Heterogeneous Materials, sponsored by State of Utah Community/University Research Initiative Grants, 05/01/2007-06/30/2008.

  15. Analysis of Composite Rotor Blades and Aircraft Structures, sponsored by Groen Brothers Aviation USA, Inc., 11/16/2007-07/24/2008.

  16. Efficient High-Fidelity Structural Models for Computational Design, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship Program, 05/20/2008-07/30/2008.

  17. Efficient High-Fidelity, Geometrically Exact, Multiphysics Structural Models, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, 08/01/2008-07/30/2011.

  18. PreVABS for High-Press ure Surface Wing Section of High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) Aircraft, AeroVironment, Inc., 09/01/2008-12/2/2008.

  19. Efficient High-Fidelity Structural Models for Computational Design, Air Force Research Laboratory, Chief Scientist Innovative Research Fund, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 06/10/2009-06/10/2010.
Total Research Funding: $2,340,800 (External: : $1,830,793, Dr. Yu's Individual responsibility: $1,402,776)

Software

Personnel

Total citations

Total SCI citations since year 2002: 173; H-Index 7

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