 | Research > Areas
Faculty members of ME Department are primarily involved in four research areas: Materials, Mechanical Systems, Microsystems, and Thermal-Fluid Systems.
The Materials group is concerned with understanding material behavior and characteristics, and the application of materials to solve engineering problems. Current research includes corrosion, surface modification and coatings, non-equilibrium processing of materials, nanostructured materials, and phase transformation.
The Mechanical Systems group deals with advanced control systems, robotics, vibrations, actuators and sensors, computer-aided design, geometric modeling, bearings, tribology, pressure vessels, composite materials, and composite piping systems.
The Microsystems group deals with mechanical elements with lateral and vertical dimensions ranging from a few micrometers to a few hundred micrometers. The group has convenient access to the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD) that houses many state-of-the-art equipment items, including a synchrotron facility optimized for deep-etch X-ray lithography. Faculty members are focusing on high-aspect ratio microsystems. Research topics range from fundamental fabrication issues to novel applications of microsystems.
The Thermal-Fluid Systems group is actively involved with studies of combustion, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer. Specific areas of current interest include combustion diagnostics, two-phase flow, macro- and micro-scale heat transfer, hazardous waste incineration, electronics cooling, gas turbine blade cooling, gas turbine combustion, heat exchangers, optical shear measurement, and jet mixing. |
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