RESEARCH AREAS FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

7 November 2002

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Thermal Processing & Phase Change

• Boiling/phase change in surfactant media
• Thermal processing f polymeric media
• Micro-gravity phase change processes
• Heat transfer in plasma spraying
• Solidification and melting

Computational Fluid Dynamics & Heat Transfer

• Blood flow in heart and arteries
• Unsteady aerodynamic flows
• Non-Newtonian flows and heat transfer
• Internal flow in complex geometries
• Transient natural convection

Transport Phenomena in Biological Systems

• Cardiovascular fluid mechanics
• Drug delivery in organs, tissues, and cells
• Radio-frequency ablation of tumors
• High-frequency focused ultrasound effects on tissue
• Image reconstruction from MRI and CAT scan data

Microscale Heat Transfer

• Microflow sensors
• Micro-channel flows with electrosmosis and electrophoresis
• Micro heat pipe
• Compact core microelectronic heat sinks

Combustion

• Liquid sheet stability and breakup
• Fuel droplet evaporation
• Prediction of flow in simplex nozzles
• Fuel coking in atomizers

Heat Transfer Enhancement

• Corrugated surfaces/compact cores
• Microfins/extended surfaces
• Swirl flows/vortex generators

Heat & Mass Exchange Devices

• Micro heat exchangers
• Plate heat exchangers
• Tubular ice storage devices
• Biological/bio-chemical heat/mass exchangers

Structural Vibrations and Acoustics Research Areas

• Experimental modal analysis
• Linear and nonlinear system identification
• Structural damping modeling and identification
• Powertrain dynamics
• Gear noise control
• Bearing vibrations
• Automotive NVH
• Vehicle system dynamics
• Structure borne path analysis
• Structure-acoustic interaction problems
• Spectral and modal substructuring
• Vibro-acoustic modeling and simulation
• Acoustic noise radiation
• Machinery noise quality testing
• Active and semi-active vibration and acoustic noise control
• Adaptive vibration control systems
• Numerical methods for structural acoustics and dynamics
• Biomechanics - whole body vibration

Computational and Applied Mechanics Research Areas

• Friction and contact problems, friction-induced vibration, friction damping
• Nonlinear mechanics
• Fracture mechanics
• Computational mechanics of advanced materials (nanomaterials, smart materials, and composite materials)
• Carbon nanocomposites
• Finite element and boundary element methods (FEM/BEM)
• Meshfree and particle methods
• CAE software development
• Large-scale computational mechanics
• Layout optimization

Dynamics, Systems, and Control Research Areas

• Multi-body dynamics
• Bio-mechanics
• Crash victim simulation
• Rotor dynamics
• Sensors
• Smart structures and actuators
• Robust and nonlinear control
• Nonlinear dynamics (bifurcation and chaos in mechanical systems)
• Modeling and analysis of mechanical systems

INDUSTRIAL AND MANUFACTURING

• Feature based manufacturing
• Computer-aided design and manufacturing integration
• Process planning
• Tolerancing and computational metrology
• Analysis of manufacturing systems
• Knowledge-based manufacturing
• Enterprise and supply chain operation excellence
• Intelligent and industrial robots
• Machine vision
• Human Performance
• Biological and clinical ergonomics
• Biomedical instrumentation
• Occupational Biomechanics
• Safety & health engineering
• Total quality management
• Work design.
• Facilities design
• Work measurement.
• Operation research
• Simulation
• Reliability
• Scheduling
• Algorithms and randomized algorithms
• Tolerancing and software engineering

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND RADIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
Nuclear Engineering

• Reactor sensor signal diagnosis and validation
• Analytical and numerical methods for radiation transport
• Reactor physics & computations
• Probabilistic determination of reactor operability rules

Radiological Engineering

• Turbulence/Radio-Turbulence
• Radiation effects on materials
• Radiation measurement
• Thermo-Fluids
• Workflow automation
• Man-machine interfaces

Health Physics

• Radiological substitutes for lung, muscle & bone.
• Design and fabrication of anthropometric calibration standards
• In vivo measurement of internally deposited radionuclides
• Environmental radiological exposure assessment
• Natural & technologically enhanced radiation measurements
• Internal radiation dosimetry
• External radiation dosimetry
• Direct and indirect bioassay
• Occupational radiological safety
• Transport of radioactive Nobel gases in fluids
• Radon exposure measurements
• In vivo measurement of stable lead in bone