The research activity of this Presidential Young Investigator Award includes the area of structural mechanics, with an emphasis on the application of advanced analytical and numerical techniques to the study of problems in materials characterization and structural response. Research includes fracture mechanics, plasticity, fatigue analysis, micro-mechanics, and nonlinear dynamics, both in academic and industrial contexts. Specific areas of research include the following: fatigue life predictions for rolling and bearing elements, including effects of impurities; mechanics of joints and interfaces in wood and composite structural elements; and, global dynamics of hysteretic nonlinear dynamical systems, with an emphasis on structural applications.
