Brown University's MRSEC has a research thrust in the area of Mechanics of Materials. Mechanics issues abound across the full scope of advanced and emerging materials. Strong, tough and durable lightweight and high-temperature structural materials are a direct route to energy efficiency. In electronics, the defects that degrade devices are nucleated by high stresses, and the control of stress during device fabrication is a major issue. Yet, stress can drive the formation of useful structures such as quantum dots. There are a host of biological phenomena wherein stress is a primary driving force. Mechanics is thus an integral part of the invention, design and representation of material behavior across the full spectrum of functional systems. Research in the center will emphasize three areas: (i) the mechanics of thin film and small-scale structures, focusing on their formation, stability, and creation of stress during growth, (ii) the mechanics of complex multiphase materials, focusing on the prediction and mechanisms of deformation, fracture and fatigue at micron- and nanometer size scales, and (iii) the mechanics of adhesion in biological systems, focusing on quantifying ranges of material behavior discriminating between normal and abnormal cell function. The Center also has a broad spectrum of educational and outreach programs with the broad goals of exposing young students to the excitement of science; providing teachers with the tools needed to enhance science in their classrooms; exposing undergraduate students to high-level research while providing an environment for minorities and women that presents graduate education as an attractive career path; and enhance new undergraduate engineering programs at partner institutions. The education component of the Center is run by participating MRSEC faculty, and is thus intimately connected to the research efforts and the undergraduate and graduate teaching. The Center involves about twenty Brown faculty predominantly from the Division of Engineering, and also manages a host of central experimental research facilities, such as scanning electron microscope and molecular-beam epitaxy, that are available to the Brown community and industrial users. The Center participants interact with researchers across the world and have collaborative programs with a number of industries, most notably General Motors, in which the unique capabilities developed in fundamental MRSEC research are applied to problems of technological importance.
Developing methods to control deformation and mitigate catastrophic failure in materials under stress is one of the central goals of materials science. New materials that are capable of withstanding large stress without failure are required for structural applications; stresses influence electronic properties and can drive self-assembly on surfaces; and biological materials exhibit a range of complex responses to stress. The Brown University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Micro- and Nano-Mechanics of Materials has played a leading role in the field of mechanics of materials, addressing challenging fundamental and technologically important problems at length scales from macroscopic down to the atomic scales. The Brown MRSEC has supported not only scientific research but also a range of central research facilities as well as educational and technological outreach activities consistent with the broader impact goals of the National Science Foundation and U.S. science policy. The broad theme of Brown’s MRSEC program has been to determine and quantify mechanical behaviors of a range of materials systems at the technological forefront, including whiskers, thin films, nanostructured materials, energy storage materials, and biological materials. Research has been organized into the following topical areas: IRG1 - Stress in Thin Film and Small Scale Structures; IRG2 - Multiscale Mechanics of Complex Microstructures; Seed projects: Micromechanics of Cell Adhesion; Mechanics of Energy Storage Materials. The IRGs and Seeds are complementary and interactive, with individual faculty members often participating in research within more than one area. A total of 30 faculty participants were involved, resulting in full or partial support of 18 postdoctoral researchers and 106 graduate students. A total of ~300 journal publications resulted, with ~60 publications co-authored by two or more MRSEC faculty members. In addition, the Brown MRSEC program established a number of long-term industrial collaborations. The General Motors/Brown University Collaborative Research Laboratory (CRL) was initiated by General Motors in 2002 to develop computer simulations that predict the mechanical properties of materials used in automotive applications, and to use these simulations to help General Motors to develop materials with enhanced performance. Since its inception, the General Motors/Brown CRL has supported ten faculty members, over 25 students and research associates, and has generated over 80 publications in archival journals. A similar collaborative research laboratory has been established with Medtronic, which focuses on development and characterization of advanced materials for pacemaker leads; stents; and energy storage devices for biomedical applications. The Medtronic lab supports one research associate and two students. Several additional industrial partners have participated in smaller-scale collaborations, including Arcelor-Mittal, who initiated a study of deformation mechanisms in high-strength steels, which has now developed into a larger-scale project supported by the Department of Energy. Educational programs established through Brown MRSEC support include a Research Experiences for Teachers program (the RET program has engaged 26% minority, 52% female, and 94% of teachers representing schools with high percentages of underrepresented students); an REU program with substantial participation from both minorities and women (34% and 48%, respectively, since 2006); ‘BrownOut,’ which has supported undergraduate development and delivery of hands-on science modules for area classrooms; and SPIRA, a summer program that provides 10th grade girls with an introduction to engineering. The RET and the REU programs supported 23 teachers and 98 undergraduate students, respectively. These programs were assessed by the Leadership Alliance in 2008 and was rated ‘highly effective:’ for example, 80% of respondents indicated that they use materials learned during the RET program on a monthly basis years after completing the program.
