Characterization and Mapping of Mechanical Properties in Complex Materials and Geometries

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This research program builds on more than 20 years' experience in the characterization and mapping of mechanical properties in biological tissues by developing a coherent and integrated set of material models as well as mathematical and computational methods for mechanical property characterization to facilitate the use of these techniques across a wide range of applications. The principal aim of this research program is to create a toolbox of robust, repeatable, and quantifiable techniques capable of operating across multiple domains, from medical and biomedical applications such as neuroimaging, cancer screening, and cell biology to industrial design and fabrication applications such as the characterization of advanced composite structures for the aerospace, transport and sporting industries. To achieve this aim, this research program will focus on three main research areas: Modeling, Methods and Modes (of Application). In the area of Modeling, there are two major objectives. The first, to integrate structural finite elements used for the modeling of bars, beams, plates, and shells into the existing characterization methods to facilitate application to simpler, 2D geometries and manufactured structures. The second objective in this area is to develop multi-scale modeling procedures for simulating the complex, micro-scale fluid-solid and fiber-matrix interactions that underlie the behavior of biological tissues and composite materials. In the area of Methods, the first major research objective is to expand existing characterization methods to include advanced pre- and post-processing data analysis methods to accelerate computation times and increase accuracy. The second objective in this area is to develop quantified uncertainty measures of the resulting property maps. These uncertainty measures will be coupled with existing in-vivo property maps and simulated data to develop unbiased, complete training methods for deep learning based direct characterization methods. In the area of Modes of Application, the major objective of this research program is to standardize the software tools used for different characterization techniques, such that the various models and methods are easily tested and applied across different applications. This includes the use of different data sources (from digital cameras to Magnetic Resonance Imaging), operating in different physical regimes (from high frequency imaging at the cellular scale to quasi-static imaging of structural panels) and providing different outcomes (e.g. detailed maps of frequency dependent material properties vs. single estimates of homogeneous structural characteristics).