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好处。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。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的设备和系统。目前，用于分析和优化基于纳米技术的器件和材料性能的此类工具非常有限。这项拟议的研究将涉及基于修正的连续介质力学理论开发通用和高效的软件，用于分析纳米尺度的梁、板和壳结构。这种结构是许多纳米级设备和系统的基本构件。该研究还将提出一个基于修正的连续介质力学概念的新的力学框架，以评估纳米复合材料的有效性能，并将研究基质材料和纳米增强体之间的相互作用，以优化复合材料的性能。碳纳米管具有许多优异的性能，在纳米技术中有着重要的应用。该项目还将研究碳纳米管生长的一些基本机制，并使用量子力学和分子动力学方法模拟碳纳米管的生长过程。在这个项目中，三名博士生将接受纳米技术研究方面的培训。这项工作还将涉及与来自电气和计算机工程、材料工程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.