Mechanics of nanoscale structures and nanocomposites

纳米技术和纳米科学被广泛认为对先进材料、信息和通信技术、机电一体化、生物医学工程、环境工程等领域具有重大的益处。纳米技术是通过在纳米尺度上控制形状和尺寸来设计、表征、生产和应用结构、器件和系统的技术。纳米技术的发展需要计算机辅助分析和设计工具来分析纳米级器件和系统。目前，用于分析和优化基于纳米技术的器件和材料性能的工具非常有限。本研究将基于改进的连续介质力学理论，开发用于分析纳米尺度梁、板和壳结构的通用高效软件。这种结构是许多纳米级器件和系统的基本组成部分。本研究还将提出一个基于改进的连续介质力学概念的新的力学框架来估计纳米复合材料的有效性能，并将研究基体材料和纳米级增强材料之间的相互作用，以优化复合材料的性能。碳纳米管具有许多优良的性能，在纳米技术中有着重要的应用。本项目还将研究碳纳米管生长的一些基本机制，并利用量子力学和分子动力学方法模拟生长过程。本项目将培训三名博士研究生进行纳米技术研究。这项工作还将涉及与电气与计算机工程系、材料工程系和机械工程系的研究人员的互动。

Nanotechnologies and nanosciences are widely seen as having significant benefits to areas as diverse as advanced materials, information and communication technologies, mechatronics, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, etc. Nanotechnologies are the design, characterization, production and application of structures, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at nanometer scale. The development of nanotechnology requires computer-aided analysis and design tools to analyze nanoscale devices and systems. At present, there are very limited such tools to analyze and optimize the performance of nanotechnology-based devices and materials. The proposed research will involve the development of versatile and efficient software for analysis of nanoscale beam, plate and shell structures based on a modified continuum mechanics theory. Such structures are the basic building blocks of many nanoscale devices and systems. The proposed research will also present a new mechanistic framework based on modified continuum mechanics concepts to estimate the effective properties of nanocomposites and will examine the interaction between matrix materials and nanoscale reinforcements to optimize the composite material properties. Carbon nanotubes are known to have many excellent properties and have important applications in nanotechnology. This project will also include a study of some fundamental mechanisms of carbon nanotube growth and simulation of the growth process by using quantum mechanical and molecular dynamics methods. Three PhD students will be trained in nanotechnology research in this project. The work will also involve interaction with researchers from the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.