Research

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Areas of Research

Material Systems

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• Infrastructure Materials
• Reactive Materials
• Theory and Computation
• Advanced Materials Testing
• Biomaterials
• Nanomaterials
• Geomaterials
• Fluids

Infrastructure Materials

Research Topics

Cementitious composites • geopolymer cement • recycled materials • timber & CLT • rocks • composite laminates • soil • granular materials

Faculty

• Zdeněk Bažant
• Giuseppe Buscarnera
• Federico Ciardo
• Gianluca Cusatis
• Sinan Keten
• Alessandro Rotta-Loria
• John Rudnicki
• Lucia Stein-Montalvo

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Reactive Materials

Research Topics

Geochemical rock-fluid reactions • soil minerals • microplastics & nanoplastics • photocatalytic TiO₂-based nanocomposites • plasmonic materials • antibacterial thin films • self-cleaning surfaces • polyelectrolyte complex membranes • reactive absorbents • 3D graphene • Nanoconfinement materials

Faculty

• • Ludmilla Aristilde
  • Zdeněk Bažant
  • Kimberly Gray
  • Jean-François Gaillard
  • Erica Hartmann
  • Sinan Keten
  • John Rudnicki

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Theory & Computation

Research Topics

Multiphysics & multiscale computation • fracture mechanics • molecular simulation of soft materials • strain localization • statistics of material strength • rheology • plasticity & limit analysis • sensing & parameter identification

Faculty

• Ludmilla Aristilde
• Zdeněk Bažant
• Oluwaseyi Balogun
• Giuseppe Buscarnera
• Gianluca Cusatis
• Jean-François Gaillard
• Yonggang Huang
• Sinan Keten
• Alessandro Rotta-Loria
• Lucia Stein-Montalvo

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Advanced Materials Testing

Research Topics

X-ray spectroscopy • XAS, XANES, EXAFS • nanoscale X-ray tomography • solid state NMR • nondestructive materials characterization • nanoindentation • scratch test • mercury intrusion porosimetry  • mechanical testing with environmental controls • dynamic testing

Faculty

• • Oluwaseyi Balogun
  • Zdeněk Bažant
  • Jean-François Gaillard
  • Yonggang Huang
  • Sinan Keten
  • Aaron Packman
  • Alessandro Rotta-Loria

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Biomaterials

Research Topics

Biomacromolecular compositions & design •  biofilms • periphyton  • mechanics of tissues • whiskers & follicles • biosensors • Lignin derived structures

Faculty

• Zdeněk Bažant
• Neal Blair
• Jean-François Gaillard
• Kimberly Gray
• Erica Hartmann
• Yonggang Huang
• Sinan Keten
• John Rudnicki
• George Wells

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Nanomaterials

Research Topics

Carbon nanotubes & nanofibers • functionalized graphene, GO, rGO • metal & metal oxides (n-ZnO, n-Ag, n-TiO₂) • multifunctional catalytic, plasmonic & photoactive nanocomposites • lignin & cellulose nanoparticles • clay minerals • hydrodynamics in mineral nanopores • mixed-dimensional electronic heterostructures • nanomodification of cement-based materials • nanotoxicity • nanoconfinement using mSiO₂

Faculty

• Ludmilla Aristilde
• Zdeněk Bažant
• Oluwaseyi Balogun
• Jean-François Gaillard
• Kimberly Gray
• Erica Hartmann
• Yonggang Huang
• Sinan Keten
• John Rudnicki

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Geomaterials

Research Topics

Sand liquefaction • cyclic behavior of soils • organic geomaterials • geochemical fluid-rock interaction • rock compaction & fracture • unsaturated soils • clay minerals • iron-oxide minerals • fluid-infiltrated rock • mineralized crystals

Faculty

• Ludmilla Aristilde
• Zdeněk Bažant
• Neal Blair
• Giuseppe Buscarnera
• Federico Ciardo
• Gianluca Cusatis
• Jean-François Gaillard
• Alessandro Rotta-Loria
• John Rudnicki

Fluids 

Research Topics

Computational Fluid Dynamics • Fluid Mechanics • Wind Engineering • Fluid-structure interaction • Multiphase flows • Boundary layer theory • Instability and Turbulence

Faculty

• Federico Ciardo
• Aaron Packman
• Lucia Stein-Montalvo
• George Wells

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