News & EventsDepartment Events
Events
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Apr17
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lessTitle: Bio-inspired Burrowing Mechanisms and Robots
Abstract: Burrowing robots, capable of navigating through soil, have emerged as a novel class of mobile systems with applications in exploration, search and rescue, sensor deployment, inspection, monitoring, surveillance, transport, and construction. However, burrowing in soil presents unique challenges compared to movement in air or water. To burrow effectively, robots must overcome the substantial strength of the soil and frictional drag along their surfaces, with resistance orders of magnitude higher than in other media. Soil deposits also exhibit inherent stress and strength gradients, coupled with heterogeneity. These challenging conditions are exacerbated by the inevitable alterations to the soil structure and state caused by the robot’s movement, further complicating the soil-robot interactions. Despite these challenges and complexities, numerous soil-dwelling organisms have mastered the art of burrowing, often vital for their survival. These living systems move through soil by leveraging body shape changes and exploiting the solid-fluid phase transition of granular media. Biological burrowing mechanisms, such as dual anchor and peristalsis (razor clams, earthworms), undulation (burrowing snakes, sandfish lizards), granular fluidization (mole crabs, sand octopi), and growth (plant roots), have inspired the development of bio-inspired burrowing robots. This talk synthesizes our lessons learned from understanding the burrowing mechanisms of razor clams, seed awns, and worm lizards, and the development of bio-inspired burrowing robots. Specifically, a unified soil-mechanics-based theoretical framework for reciprocating burrowing mechanisms will be highlighted, providing insights into the design of these novel systems.
Bio: Dr. Junliang (Julian) Tao is an Associate Professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University, and a Senior Investigator at the NSF Engineering Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG). He previously served as an Assistant Professor at The University of Akron. Dr. Tao earned his Bachelor’s degree from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Master’s from Tongji University, and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. A recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2017, his current research focuses on bio-inspired geotechnics. His work explores the fundamental interactions between living things and geological materials, abstracts these mechanisms to engineering design principles, and translates the design principles to autonomous, efficient, sustainable and intelligent geotechnics. Current research interests include bio-inspired self-burrowing robots, underground sensing and communication, sustainable countermeasures to natural hazards.
TIME Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Apr19
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lessTitle- Water Treatment Materials and Membranes
TIME Friday, April 19, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Apr22
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Monday, April 22, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION 1101, Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Apr24
EVENT DETAILS
lessAbstract: Current understanding of using energy releases for both fields of experimental damage mechanics or induced seismicity primarily focuses on parametric analysis, e.g., individual traits of energy releases such as magnitude and rate of release. But the extensive information embedded in the organizational patterns of energy releases has hardly been explored. Here we study the specific organizational signatures that they possess. A key theme to this work is to show that energy release organizational signatures (topology) are physically connected to fundamental mechanisms of fracture and slip—but demands a perspective shift to an interdisciplinary approach that combines mechanics and data science. We move from understanding energy releases in time only, to connecting them in space-time-magnitude-mechanism and understanding the shape of these multi-dimensional networks as tree structures and their evolution. This presentation will demonstrate the analyses that extend single scale acoustic emission (AE) data into multi-scale connected networks that can inform our understanding of stress evolution.
Bio: Jesse Hampton is an Assistant Professor in Civil and Geological Engineering (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the intersection of humanity, Earth systems, and the infrastructure needed for travel and power generation, there exists an interdisciplinary field where civil engineering, geological engineering, sustainability, geophysics, and data science are inextricably linked. At this intersection, Dr. Hampton's research focuses on a few cross-cutting themes including multiscale damage (e.g., from microcracks to earthquakes), nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques (e.g., from acoustic emissions (AEs) to distributed fiber optic sensing), and artificial intelligence (e.g., from optimization to deep learning). The goal of Dr. Hampton's research is to predict and mitigate damage in Earth and Civil Engineering systems from the micro- to field-scales to enhance infrastructure sustainability. Prior to joining the UW-Madison faculty, Dr. Hampton worked in geomechanics and geophysics research for both Halliburton and New England Research. He obtained his PhD in 2015 from Colorado School of Mines. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mbTGfxsAAAAJ&hl=en. Research Group Website:https://geod.wisc.edu/
TIME Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Apr26
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Friday, April 26, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May1
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Wednesday, May 1, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May3
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle: X-ray fluorescence microscopy for life and environmental studies at the Advanced Photon Source
Abstract: Trace elements, particularly metals, play very important roles in a large variety of biological and environmental systems. Approximately 40% of all enzymes require certain trace metals as part of their catalytic centers. Hard X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) is one of the most sensitive techniques for studying trace metals in complex systems, such as biological tissues, cells, soil aggregates, etc. In this presentation, I will discuss the XFM capabilities at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) of Argonne National Laboratory, which offer a range of spatial resolutions from 10s of microns to sub-100 nm, covering the needs of studies at multiple length scales. I will also introduce the Bionanoprobe (BNP) instrument, the first of its kind XFM instrument with cryogenic capabilities, dedicated to studying biological systems at a sub-cellular level. The cryogenic capabilities, including a cryogenic sample environment and cryogenic sample transfer mechanism, allow biological samples to be measured in their frozen hydrated state, where the ultrastructure and elemental distributions are preserved closest to their natural state. Over the past decade, we have implemented XFM tomography, ptychography imaging, and in-line optical fluorescence imaging capabilities at the BNP, enabling multi-modality analysis on the same platform. Currently, the second-generation BNP instrument is under development and scheduled to be completed in 2025, with the primary goal of utilizing the APS-Upgrade synchrotron source and delivering a 10 nm spatial resolution.
Bio: Dr. Si Chen is Physicist and Beamline Scientist at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) of Argonne National Laboratory. Her research focuses on elemental imaging for life and environmental sciences with hard X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM). Dr. Chen joined Argonne in 2011 and commissioned the Bionanoprobe (BNP) instrument, i.e., the first of its kind nanoscale XFM with cryogenic capabilities. She is currently leading the user program centered around the BNP, as well as the efforts for developing the next-generation XFM instrumentation. Prior to joining Argonne, she received her PhD in Materials Engineering at Dartmouth College, where she studied snow metamorphism.
TIME Friday, May 3, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May6
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Monday, May 6, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION 1101, Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May8
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle- Investigating Single & Multi-Component Polymer Grafted Nanoparticles using Molecular Modelling
TIME Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May10
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle: Phosphorous Recycling
TIME Friday, May 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May13
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Monday, May 13, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION 1101, Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May15
EVENT DETAILS
lessAbstract: Grain boundaries have a central importance for functional properties of materials. They can critically control thermal and elactrical transport, determining the performance of energy and electronic materials. In thermoelectric materials – promising for refrigerant-free cooling and waste heat energy harvesting – grain boundaries can be leveraged to suppress the thermal conductivity, but can also detrimentally suppress the carrier mobility. Grain boundaries are not all equal: they are associated to several degrees of freedom, and can come in multiple orientations, symmetries, and chemistries. Recent evidence suggests that some types of grain boundaries could be more beneficial than others for the thermoelectric performance. Despite the importance, we lack a clear understanding of how grain boundaries modify the microscale transport owing to the scarcity of local investigations. Usually the role of grain boundaries is inferred from bulk, effective measurements. However, understanding how grain boundaries impact transport locally is a crucial perspective to enable grain-boundary engineering for the next generation of high-performance thermoelectrics.
In this seminar, I will introduce our recent work on thermal conductivity imaging of grain boundaries via spatially-resolved frequency-domain thermoreflectance. Measurements with microscale resolution reveal a suppression in thermal conductivity at grain boundaries both in thermoelectric SnTe and photovoltaic multicrystalline silicon. In contrast to conventional thermal modeling, which assumes that all boundaries are perfect scatterers and lead to uniformly suppressed thermal conductivity, we observe a non-uniform suppression localized within a few microns of a boundary. Furthermore, not all grain boundaries behave the same: misorientation angle, symmetry, as well as interface roughness and morphology are found to strongly correlate with the effective thermal boundary resistance. Extracting transport properties from microscale imaging can provide comprehensive understanding of how individual microstructural components work. In particular, it can advance the study of grain boundary phases - i.e. two-dimensional phases stabilized at the boundary and that can be controlled via thermodynamics - by correlating how thier local chemistry and structure impact functional properties. This development can improve our understanding of carrier-defect interactions, enabling the rational engineering of interfaces and materials microstructures for superior performance in energy and electronics.
Bio: Eleonora Isotta is currently a Postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. She joined in fall 2022 and has been working on thermal transport in semiconductors, developing methods to perform thermal imaging of defects, with a focus on grain boundaries, together with Prof. G. J. Snyder and Prof. O. Balogun. She received her B.S. in Environmental Engineering in 2015 and M.S. in Energy Engineering in 2017 from University of Trento. In 2021, she received a Ph.D. in Materials Science from University of Trento, with a dissertation on the interplay between crystal structure and transport properties in thermoelectric materials. She then pursued a Postdoc at Michigan State University working on thermal transport and elasticity in thermoelectric materials. Her current research interests involve thermal transport, microstructure engineering, and materials for thermoelectrics and electronics.
TIME Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May17
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Friday, May 17, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May20
EVENT DETAILS
lessTBA
TIME Monday, May 20, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION 1101, Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May22
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle: Mechanism-based multi-scale models for damage and failure in heterogeneous materials
Abstract: A large variety of modern engineering materials such as polymers and their composites (unidirectional, textile, nanocomposites) have a heterogeneous microstructure. As a result, their failure behavior under multi-axial stresses is highly complex, consisting of multiple simultaneous meso-scale damage mechanisms. Moreover, the heterogeneous microstructure also makes the fracturing distinct quasi-brittle character (neither fully brittle nor fully ductile). This has important implications on structural behavior, especially in terms of size effects in strength and fracture toughness. Since structural designs often rely on numerical modeling, an accurate prediction of load-bearing capacities and energy dissipation during these failures is essential. This talk will focus on the class of semi-multiscale constitutive models called the microplane models (pioneered at Northwestern), which effectively address this challenge. These models have a dual-scale architecture, and can reproduce complex macro-scale behaviors via simple, intuitive formulation of meso-scale damage mechanisms. They also provide a physically sound basis to homogenize the meso-scale damage to predict the macro-scale failure growth and structural size effects. They are thus an effective strategy for multi-mechanism failures in heterogeneous materials. First, we will introduce the quintessential spherical microplane model, first developed for concrete, and applicable in general to isotropic materials. We will present its application to the failure of brittle-plastic polymers and demonstrate its abilities to capture complex aspects such as tension-compression asymmetry and pressure sensitivity. Next, we will introduce the cylindrical microplane model, which applies to unidirectionally reinforced polymer composites, which are transversely isotropic. We will present a successful application of this model to compression induced kink band failures. Following that we will introduce the microplane triad model, which applies to textile composites, which are orthotropic and have additional complexities due to yarn undulations. We will demonstrate its successful application to prediction of ballistic impact of woven composite lamina. Lastly, we will discuss the challenges of applying these models to real world applications and directions for future work.
Bio- Prof. Kedar Kirane is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, New York. His research focuses on characterizing, understanding, and predicting the fracturing and scaling behavior of various conventional and advanced heterogeneous materials. These include brittle materials, fiber reinforced composites, polymers, nanocomposites, geological and cementitious materials, and soft materials. His research combines experimental, computational, and theoretical approaches. The overarching goal is to develop reliable predictive capabilities and sound scientific bases for safe designs in various engineering applications. Prof. Kirane obtained his Ph.D. in 2014 from Northwestern University and joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at Stony Brook University in Sept 2017. He also holds an M.S. degree from the Ohio State University (2007) and a B.S from the University of Pune, India (2004), both in mechanical engineering. Prior to joining Stony Brook, Prof. Kirane worked in industry, as a finite element analyst at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co and later as a senior research engineer at ExxonMobil Corp. His research is supported by DOD ARO, DOD ONR, NSF NRT, and ASME. He is the recipient of the 2020 Orr Early Career Award by ASME’s Materials Division, the 2019 DOD ARO Young Investigator Award, and the 2018 Haythornthwaite Research Initiation Grant by ASME’s Applied Mechanics Division.
TIME Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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May24
EVENT DETAILS
lessTitle- PFAS Characterization
TIME Friday, May 24, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LOCATION A236, Technological Institute map it
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Jun6
EVENT DETAILS
lessDepartment ceremony to recognize the graduate students completing their degree.
TIME Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
LOCATION 1702 Chicago Ave
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Jun7
EVENT DETAILS
lessDinner reception to celebrate the graduating seniors from CEE undergraduate program.
TIME Friday, June 7, 2024 at 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
LOCATION 623 W Howard St
CONTACT Andrew Liguori andrew.liguori@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick - Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
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Jun10
EVENT DETAILSmore info
lessMcCormick School of Engineering PhD Hooding and Master’s Degree Recognition Ceremony
TIME Monday, June 10, 2024 at 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
LOCATION Welsh-Ryan Arena
CONTACT Amy Pokrass amy.pokrass@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
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Jun10
TIME Monday, June 10, 2024 at 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
LOCATION Welsh-Ryan Arena
CONTACT Amy Pokrass amy.pokrass@northwestern.edu EMAIL
CALENDAR McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science