In the Mechanical Engineering Department the current research are in the areas of Multibody Dynamics, Mechanical System Analysis and Design, Controls and Robotics for Manufacturing and Automation, Composites, Combustion and Thermal/Fluid Sciences, and Materials Science and Engineering. Current research topics in the area of Multibody Dynamics are Crashworthiness and Occupant Protection of Transportation Systems, Vehicle Safety under Impact, Biodynamics, Injury Biomechanics, and Testing and Certification of Vehicle and Aircraft Components under Dynamic Impact Conditions. Computational Facility Includes State-of-the-Art Multibody Dynamics and Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis Tools for Structural Crash Analysis of Vehicle Components, Modeling of Occupant Biodynamics, and Injury Biomechanics. Current research in the area of Mechanical System Analysis and Design include Snake Robots for 3-D Environment, Wall Climbing Robot, Improving hydrodynamic efficiency of Robotic Fish, Robotic Insects, and Computer Vision and Robotic Inspection. In the area of Controls and Robotics for Manufacturing and Automation the current focus is on Achieving Hole Quality through Precision Drilling, High Speed Drilling, Analytical Modeling of Machining Processes, Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing, Optimum Design of the Conventional Automobile Transportation Truck, Implementation of the RoMAN Database, Reduction of Pilot Error by Computer Assisted Information System, and Enhanced Human Capabilities in Hard to Reach Areas and Confined Spaces. Research in the area of Composites includes Investigation of Adhesive Behavior in Aircraft Applications, Control of Process-Induced Shape Instability of Polymer Matrix Composite Laminates, and the Role of Surface Treatment and Sizing of Carbon Fiber Surfaces on the Mechanical Properties of Composites containing Carbon Fibers. The NSF is currently funding a project on Advanced Composites for Aviation Industry under its Research Experience for Undergraduates program. In the areas of Combustion and Thermal/Fluid Sciences the current research activities are on Fuel Tank Safety, Reduction of Gas Turbine Emissions, Lithium Air Fuel Cells, Microscale Heat Transfer and Its application to MEMS, Thin-Film Conduction and Lithium-Ion Battery Development, Plasma Processing of Nanostructured Materials, Melting and Resolidification in Materials Processing, and Thermocapillary Flows. Current computational facilities include state-of-the-art CFD software on the department’s PC’s as well as on the 24-processor supercomputer SGI Origin 2000 housed in the High Performance Computing Center at WSU. Materials Science and Engineering research are being conducted on Processing of Metal Alloys, Characterization of Nanostructured, Optoelectronic and other materials by X-ray Diffraction and Synchrotron X-ray Topography Techniques, Reactive Formation of Intermetallics, Friction Stir Welding of Aeronautical Materials, Residual Thermal stress analysis and Synchrotron X-ray Topography Characterization of Wide Bandgap Semiconductors. Current funding for the research activities in the Department are from FAA, NIAR, NSF, NSF/EPSCoR, NASA/EPSCoR, and NASA. Related Links: |
Mechanical
Engineering