Multiscale Mechanics and Physics Laboratory

The Multiscale Mechanics and Physics Lab investigates multiscale mechanical behavior of engineered and biological materials to develop advanced materials for structural/biomedical applications and predict failure and fracture properties of nano/biomaterials.

This includes computational biomechanics, computational material design and advanced manufacturing.

Current research includes:

  • Neurobiology of brain injury 
  • Cavitation-induced damage in neuron and ECM
  • Mechanics of soft polymers
  • Advanced ceramics and polymer nanocomposites

News

  1. January 2018: BLAST, BUBBLE AND BRAIN INJURY
  2. January 2018: UTA associate professor awarded grant to research head trauma, disorders
  3. December 2017: UTA RESEARCHER WORKING TO CORRELATE BLAST TRAUMA TO NEURONAL DAMAGE IN THE BRAIN
  4. July 2017: UTA MECHANICAL ENGINEER PUBLISHES FINDINGS THAT SHOW BRAIN DAMAGE THAT COULD OCCUR FROM BLAST-INDUCED CAVITATION
  5. Spring 2016: UTA Inquiry Magazine -- MAKING CERAMICS STRONGER
  6. August 2015: Taylor, Adnan Earn Funding from America Makes Project Group
  7. September 2013: Research project hopes to make Texas highways safer

Personnel

  • Ashfaq Adnan, Ph.D., Director | Faculty Profile
  • Yuan-Ting Wu, Postdoctoral researcher

Doctoral Students

  • Fuad Hasan (Aerospace Engineering)
    Current research: Fluid structure interaction, damage at the neuron-ECM interface
  • Md Riaz Kayser (Mechanical Engineering)
    Current research: Strong and tough multiphase ceramics, mechanics of multiscale material
  • Alireza Rezaee (Mechanical Engineering)
    Current research: Numerical modeling of 3D printing process, interlaminar failure prediction of FDM parts
  • Hasan Al Mahmud (Mechanical Engineering)
    Current research: Multiscale mechanics of soft materials
  • Rajni Chahal (Aerospace Engineering)
    Current research: Carbon nanotube reinforced polymer nanocomposites
  • Md Ishak Khan (Mechanical Engineering)
    Current research: Structural aspects of axon, protein modeling, mechanical insights on traumatic brain injury

Master's Students

  • Adrian Martinez (Mechanical Engineering)
    Thesis: Mechanics and Mechanisms of Conducting Filament Formation in Hafnia Multilayer for Neuromorphic Application
  • Megha Tangri (Mechanical Engineering)
    Current research: Applying classical lamination theory for failure prediction of 3D printed structures

Alumni

Ph.D.

  1. Md. Farzad Sarkar (Mechanical Engineering, 2014, M.Eng., 2011)
    Currently at Zodiac Aerospace in Long Beach, CA
  2. Sheikh Fahad Ferdous (Mechanical Engineering, 2015)
    Currently Senior Lecturer, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
  3. ARN Nazmus Sakib (Mechanical Engineering, 2016)
    Currently IC Package Materials Engineer at NXP Semiconductors, Austin, TX
  4. Peter Lebo (Mechanical Engineering, 2016 -- co-advisor with Wen Chan)
    Currently post-doc at Purdue University-Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN

Master's

  1. Md. Mostafijur Rahman (M.Eng., Mechanical Engineering, 2014)
  2. Sushma Pothana (M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2015)
    Currently at E-MC2, Columbus, OH
  3. Zoher Lavangia (M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2015)
    Currently at Medtronic, Fort Worth, TX
  4. Louis Parkman (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2015)
    Currently at Corning (DFW)
  5. Manikanta Jonnalagadda (M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2015)
    Currently at AVL America, MI
  6. Sachin Jose (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2015)
    Currently at Zimmer Biomet, Warsaw, Indiana
  7. Divya Bandaru (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2016)
    Currently at Intel, Hillsboro, NJ
  8. Amit Khatri (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2016)
    Currently a Mechanical Design Engineer -- Product Development, Kasai North America, Inc.
  9. Justin O. Compton (M.S. Candidate, Aerospace Engineering)
    Currently at L-3 Communication, DFW
  10. Saket, Thapliyal (M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 201X)
    Currently in Ph.D. program in MSE, University of North Texas
  11. Krutarth Patel(M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 201X)
    Currently at the UTA Research Institute

Undergrad Researchers

  1. Narendra De (B.S., Aerospace Engineering)
    Obtained Ph.D. from Purdue, currently at APL, John Hopkins
  2. Fairuz Quazi, (B.S., Mechanical Engineering) NSF REU
  3. Stephanie Luong, (B.S., Mechanical Engineering) NSF REU
  4. Nabeel Khan (B.S., Mechanical Engineering) 
  5. Amir Shreshta (B.S., Aerospace Engineering)
  6. Hasintha Hiran Amaranayaka (B.S., Aerospace Engineering)
  7. Mathew Blackwell (B.S., Aerospace Engineering)
  8. John Frnka (B.S., Mechanical Engineering)

Publications

  1. Wonmo Kang, Ashfaq Adnan, Thomas O'Shaughnessy, Amit Bagchi, Cavitation nucleation in gelatin: Experiment and mechanism, Acta Biomaterialia, 2018
  2. Riaz Kayser, Ashfaq Adnan, Grain boundary driven mechanical properties of ZrB2 and ZrC-ZrB2 nanocomposite: a molecular simulation study, Accepted, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 2018
  3. Mohammad Raziul Hasan,Mohammed Arif I. Mahmood, Raja Raheel Khanzada, Nuzhat Mansur, Ashfaq Adnan, and Samir M. Iqbal, Molecular Dynamics Study of Protein Deformation through Solid-State Nanopore, Functional Nanostructures, 2017.
  4. Yuan-Ting Wu and Ashfaq Adnan, Effect of Shock-Induced Cavitation Bubble Collapse on the damage in the Simulated Perineuronal Net of the Brain,. Scientific Reports 7, 2017
  5. Sheikh Ferdous, Ashfaq Adnan, Mode-I Fracture Toughness Prediction of Diamond at the Nanoscale, Journal of Nanomechanics and Micromechanics 7 (3), 2017 (https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/(ASCE)NM.2153-5477.0000130)
  6. Ashfaq Adnan, Sheikh Ferdous Mechanical Properties of Computationally Designed Novel Carbon Enriched Si1-xCx Ceramics: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study Computational Materials Science, Computational Materials Science,110, (2015), Pages 331-339
  7. Ashfaq Adnan, Sheikh Ferdous, Computational Design of Novel Carbon Enriched Si1-xCx Ceramics: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study, Computational Materials Science 96, 354–359 (2015)
  8. Mahmood, Mohammed Arif; Ali, Waqas; Adnan, Ashfaq; Iqbal, Samir, 3D Structural Integrity and Interactions of Single-stranded Protein-binding DNA in a Functionalized Nanopore, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Part B: Biophysical Chemistry, Biomaterials, Liquids, and Soft Matter, B: Biophysical Chemistry and Biomolecules. 118(22):5799-5806, (2014)
  9. Sheikh F Ferdous, Ashfaq Adnan, Role of Surface Vacancy on the Tensile Stress-Strain Relations of Single Crystal Ni Nanowire, Computational Materials Science. 90: 221-231, (2014)
  10. Mujibur R. Khan, Hassan Mahfuz, Ashfaq Adnan, A Study of Mechanical Behavior and Morphology of Carbon Nanotube Reinforced UHMWPE/Nylon 6 Hybrid Polymer Nanocomposites Fiber. Fibers and Polymers. 15(7): 1484-1492, (2014)
  11. A.R. Nazmus Sakib, Narendra De, Ashfaq Adnan, “Shear Fracture of confined NaCl nanofilms”, Computational Materials Science 68, 271-279, (2013).
  12. Sheikh F Ferdous, Farzad Sarker, Ashfaq Adnan, “Role of Nanoparticle Dispersion and Filler-Matrix Interface on the Matrix Dominated Failure of C60-PE Nanocomposites: A molecular dynamics simulation study” Polymer, Volume 54, Issue 10, 26 Pages 2565–2576. (2013)
  13. Mujibur R. Khan, Hassan Mahfuz, Ashfaq Adnan and Ishraq Shabib, “Elastic properties of UHMWPE-SWCNT nanocomposites fiber: An experimental, theoretical and molecular dynamics evaluation” Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance. Volume 22, Issue 6, pp 1593-1600. (2013)
  14. A.R. Nazmus Sakib, Ashfaq Adnan, “On the Size-dependent Critical Stress Intensity Factor of Confined Brittle Nanofilms”, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 86, pp 13-22. (2012)
  15. Adnan Ashfaq, Lam Robert, Chen Hanning, Lee Jessica, Schaffer Daniel, Barnard Amanda, Schatz George, Ho Dean, Liu, Wing Kam, Atomistic Simulation and Measurement of pH dependent Cancer Therapeutic Interactions with Nanodiamond Carrier”, Molecular Pharmaceutics, 8 (2), pp 368–374 (2011)
  16. Adnan Ashfaq, C. T. Sun, “Evolution of nanoscale defects to planar cracks in a brittle solid”, Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids. Volume 58, Issue 7, July 2010, Pages 983-1000.
  17. Adnan Ashfaq, C. T. Sun, “Effect of surface morphology and temperature on the structural stability of nanoscale wavy films”, Nanotechnology, 19(31):315702, 2008.
  18. Adnan Ashfaq, C. T. Sun, “Effect of Thickness and Interface Strength on Deformation and Failure of Glassy Polymer Adhesives: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study” - Journal of Adhesion, 84(5): 401-420, 2008. 
  19. Adnan Ashfaq, C. T. Sun, Hassan Mahfuz, “A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study to Investigate the Effect of Filler Size on Elastic Properties of Polymer Nanocomposites”, Composites Science and Technology, 67: 348-56, 2007. 
  20. Mahfuz H., Adnan Ashfaq, Rangari V. K., M. M. Hasan, S. Jeelani., W. J. Wright, S. J. DeTeresa, “Enhancement of Strength and Stiffness of Nylon 6 filaments through carbon nanotubes reinforcement”, Applied Physics Letters, 88(8): 083119, 2006.
  21. Mahfuz H., Adnan Ashfaq, Rangari V. K., Jeelani S., “Manufacturing and Characterization of Carbon nanotubes/Polyethylene Composites,” International Journal of Nanoscience, 4(1): 55-72, 2005. 
  22. Nathaniel Chisholm , Hassan Mahfuz , Vijaya K. Rangari , Adnan Ashfaq and Shaik Jeelani, “Fabrication and mechanical characterization of carbon/SiC-epoxy nanocomposites”, Composite Structures, 67(1): 115-124, 2005.
  23. Mahfuz H., Adnan Ashfaq, Rangari V. K., Jeelani S. Bor Z Jang, “Carbon nanoparticles/whiskers reinforced composites and their tensile response,” Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 35(5): 519-227, 2004.