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Spring 2023

Chen, Yu

Bio-based composites made from bio-renewable and biodegradable constituents have been proposed as alternatives to petroleum-based composites for a variety of applications. However, studies have shown that in many cases, these bio-based composites are hydrophilic, and their viscoelasticity can be...

Spring 2019

Yang, Zhen

Inspired by nature, structured interfaces have been shown to enhance adhesion by trapping crack propagation along the interface. To propagate the trapped crack, more energy input is required externally and therefore the effective fracture toughness is increased. In many applications, directional...

Spring 2018

Ma, Xiaoang

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) can be used in many critical applications, including biomedical and aerospace fields, due to their ability to recover their original/permanent shape from a deformed/temporary shape upon application of a stimulus. SMPs are subjected to bending in a large number of...

Fall 2011

Lavoie, Shawn

High aspect ratio microelectromechanical structures have been found, in the literature, to collapse due to capillary forces of liquids. In this dissertation, mathematical models are developed to study (i) the collapse of a microstructure represented by a double cantilevered beam (DCB) with a free...

Spring 2010

Ding, Dan

A mathematical model is developed to study the coupled heat and moisture transfer through a fabric system that consists of a single layer of fabric and an air gap. Properties of air and moisture are sensitive to temperature and hence are assumed to be functions of local temperature. Therefore the...

Fall 2011

Malysheva, Oxana

Understanding interactions between charged entities with electronically responsive structures embedded in an electrolytic environment is important because of the diverse range of practical applications. This study was motivated by the technique where single stranded DNA was used to separate...

Fall 2015

Liu, Wanru

Recent studies show that particle tracking together with moving least-square (MLS) method is capable to interpolate displacement field and to determine strain and stress fields from discrete displacement measurements in soft materials. The goal of this study is to evaluate of the numerical...

Fall 2018

Shawn Ryan Lavoie

Inelastic material behavior is known to be able to enhance the fracture toughness of elastomers. However, how to optimally exploit this toughening mechanism is still being investigated. In this thesis a series of continuum models are developed to describe such inelastic behaviors, with the goal...

Spring 2021

Nademi, Yousef

Cell entry of polynucleotide-based therapeutic agents can be promoted by nanoparticle (NP) mediated delivery. This dissertation investigates membrane penetration of polynucleotide NPs, using mainly computational approaches, accompanied by some experiments. Major emphasis was placed on...

Spring 2022

Zongyu Wang

Poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and its copolymers received increasing attention due to their electroactive properties and lower processing cost in comparison to the conventional piezoelectric ceramic materials, which are widely used in electronics, energy harvesting, biochemistry, and sensor...