Introduction

The twinned areas of Solid Mechanics and Dynamics are the fundamental pillars on which any research in Mechanics rests. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has a very diverse collection of faculty with expertise in these fields. Our research ranges from extremely applied to purely theoretical problems, and typically involves a heady mix of applied mathematics, nonlinear dynamics, computations and experiments. Almost every aspect of mechanics is represented, and faculty work on problems spanning length scales of a Carbon Nanotube to those of a Planet.

Graduate Research

We offer research opportunities in an very many exciting areas. A short summary is provided under “Active Research Areas”. Please feel free to contact any of us about research opportunities.

Research students working with us enjoy the extensive support of their peers as well the other faculty within this group; in fact, most faculty here share Ph. D. and M. Tech.  students, laboratory/experimental facilities, computational power and even students’ office space. This allows for an extremely wholesome research and work experience for students, as well as the faculty.

Ph. D. coursework

All the group’s faculty firmly believe that research of any substance necessitates fundamental training. Thus, students wishing to pursue a Ph.D. with one or more of us are expected to complete their compulsory coursework in the Solid Mechanics and Dynamics (SM&D) research theme, i.e., they will have to take any THREE courses out of the following:

ME 621: Introduction to Solid Mechanics

ME 622: Theory of Elasticity

ME 625: Applied Dynamics and Vibrations

ME 626: Vibrations of Continuous Systems

Students are actively encouraged to do courses beyond their departmental requirements to help widen their exposure to other scientific ideas. This helps prepare them for scientific life beyond their Ph.D.s, when they will have to chart their own research paths.

Please contact any of the group’s faculty for advice/further information.

Active Research Areas

Continuum mechanics

Contact mechanics of thin adhesive films

Large deformation plasticity and thermoplasticity

Limit and Shakedown analyses

Segregation in granular mixtures

Shell vibrations

Material modeling

Dislocation dynamics

Dynamic fracture mechanics

Nonlinear Finite Element Method

Symplectic methods

Biological membranes

Biomedical engineering

Shapes, dynamics and stability of planetary bodies

Multibody and spacecraft dynamics

Machine tool vibrations

Metal forming

Mechanics of manufacturing processes

Control of self-excited vibrations,

Dynamical systems

Dynamo

Nonlinear dynamics of Rayleigh-Benard convection

Nonlinear dynamics of time-delay systems

Wheeled vehicles,

Disk brake squeal

Inter-disciplinary Research

Modern technological questions can seldom be answered within the narrow regimes of one field. There are thus many opportunities to pursue mechanics research with a deep inter-disciplinary flavor.

We are an extremely inter-disciplinary group. Faculty closely work with researchers in other areas from across the Institute, as well as, from other Laboratories/Institutes in the country and abroad. So much so, that some of these latter researchers may even be considered an extended part of this group. They are

Animangsu Ghatak (Chemical Engineering): Patterned biological membranes.

Jayant K Singh (Chemical Engineering): Computational modeling of grains.

Chandrashekhar Upadhyay (Aerospace Engineering): Computational contact mechanics.

Mahendra Verma (Physics): Nonlinear dynamics of convection.

Akash Anand (Mathematics): Mathematical computation.

Computational facilities

Some faculty pursuing computational mechanics have their own small- to medium-sized clusters. Additionally, there is a dedicated computational facility that seats about 50 students and is shared by several of the group’s faculty.

Experimental facilities

Applied mechanics Laboratory

Nonlinear dynamics laboratory: Accelerometers, Force transducers, Data Acquisition system, Oscilloscope, Amplifier and a Shaker.

Biomembranes and cell mechanics laboratory

High-speed experimental mechanics laboratory: The research in this laboratory is focused on understanding the response and failure of materials subject to extreme loading conditions. Particularly, emphasis is placed on investigating the constitute response, strength and damage tolerance of different type of materials when subjected to high strain rates (in excess of 1000/s). To this extent, the material of interest is loaded using different techniques such as spli-Hopkinson pressure bar, low velocity projectile impact and conventional UTM etc. The material response is quantified using different diagnostic techniques which include photoelasticity, image correlation and ultra-high speed imaging and interferometry. The type of materials investigated range from adhesives to polymers, metallic foams, ceramics, nano-composites and functionally graded composites.

Library

Besides the excellent Kelkar library, and the departmental library, a very reasonable selection of books is maintained in the common student facility.

Present students

Ph.d.

Ravi Dalmeya: Adhesive contact of thin films.

Ashish Bhateja: Segregation and pattern formation in granular mixtures.

Pavan Kumar: Planetary science.

Venugopal Punati: Mechanics of rolling.

Laximnarsimha Rao: Biological membranes

Paritosh Mahata: Bilogical membranes

Ashesh Saha: Control of friction-induced vibrations

Ashok Mandal: Machine tool chatter

Anup Basak: Energetics and kinetics of incoherent interfaces

Mousumi Mukherjee: Rate dependent plasticity

S Arul Kumar:

Publications (2009 onwards)

2010

Das, S. 2010. Influence of the bending rigidity and the line tension on the mechanical stability of micropipette aspirated vesicles. Phys. Rev. E, 82, 021908.

Zhao, Y., Das, S., and Du, Q. 2010. Adhesion of multi-component vesicle membranes. Phys. Rev. E, 81, 041919.

Gupta, A. and D. Steigmann 2010. On plastic flow in solids with interfaces. Submitted for publication.

Gupta, A., D. Steigmann and J. S. Stolken 2010. Aspects of phenomenological theory of elastic-plastic deformation. Submitted for publication.

Parameswaran V, Shukla D. 2010, Evaluation of elastic modulus of epoxy reinforced with 200 nm thick alumina platelets through finite element analysis, Mat. Sci. Engg. A527, 3792-3799.

Sharma, I. 2010. Equilibrium shapes of rubble-pile binaries: The Darwin ellipsoids for gravitationally held granular aggregates. Icarus 205, 636.

Yadav, R., M. Chandra, M. K. Verma, S. Paul and P. Wahi 2010. Dynamo transition under Taylor-Green forcing. Europhys. Letters 91, 69001.

Nandakumar, K., P. Wahi and A. Chatterjee 2010. Infinite dimensional slow modulations in a well known delayed model for orthogonal cutting vibrations. Nonlinear Dynamics 62(4), 705-716.

Insperger, T., P. Wahi, A. Colombo, G. Stepan, M. Di Bernardo and S. J. Hogan 2010. Full characterization of act-and-wait control for first order unstable lag processes with delayed feedback. J. Vibration and Control 16(7-8), 1209-1233.

Mishra, P. K., P. Wahi, and M. K. Verma 2010. Patterns and bifurcations in low-Prandtl number Rayleigh-Benard convection. Europhy. Letters 89, 44003.

Saha, A., B. Bhattacharya and P. Wahi 2010. A comparative study on the control of friction-driven oscillations by time-delayed feedback. Nonlinear Dynamics 60(1), 15-37.

2009

Zhang, J., S. Das, and Q. Du 2009. A phase field model of vesicle substrate adhesion. J.  Computational Physics, 228, 7837.

Das, S. L., Jenkins, J. T., and T. Baumgart 2009. Neck geometry and shape transitions in vesicles with co-existing fluid phases: Role of Gaussian curvature stiffness versus spontaneous curvature. Europhys. Letters, 86, 48003.

Edwin Raj R, Parameswaran V, Daniel BSS. 2009, Comparison of quasi-static and dynamic compression behavior of closed-cell aluminum foam, Mat. Sci. Engg., A526, 11-15.

Kommana R, Parameswaran V. 2009, Experimental and numerical investigation of a cracked transversely graded plate subjected to in plane bending, Int. J. Solids. Struct. 46 (11-12), 2420-2428.

Wadgaonkar SC, Parameswaran V. 2009, Structure of near tip stress field and variation of stress intensity factor for a crack in a transversely graded material, J. Appl. Mech. 76 (1): 011014.

Sharma, I., J. T. Jenkins and J. A. Burns 2009. Dynamical passage to approximate equilibrium shapes for spinning, gravitating rubble asteroids. Icarus 200, 304-322.

Sharma, I. 2009. The equilibrium of rubble-pile satellites: The Darwin and Roche ellipsoids for gravitationally held granular aggregates. Icarus 200, 636-654.

Pal, P., P. Wahi, S. Paul, M. K. Verma, K. Kumar and P. K. Mishra 2009. Bifurcation and chaos in zero Prandtl number convection. Europhys. Letters 87, 54003.