This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The main objective of the proposed Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Project is to advance knowledge and understanding of the nonlinear dynamics of electrostatically actuated micro-electro-mechanical systems MEMS. This project will investigate nonlinear phenomena, including escape-from-potential-well, fractal dynamics, subharmonic excitation, and internal resonance, and explore their utilization to realize new devices of unique characteristics, which are made possible due to these nonlinear phenomena. Smart sensors, which can function as electromechanical switches, such as to detect a dangerous gas or earthquakes activities and then send a warning signal, are among the potential applications that will be explored. Detailed theoretical and experimental works will be conducted on capacitive sensors, microbeams, and micromachined shallow arches. Analytical models and approaches, such as perturbation techniques and reduced-order models, will be utilized to conduct local and global dynamic investigations, including basin-of-attraction and engineering-integrity analysis, to help understand the stability of these structures and their practical use. Concepts of combined sensors and switches, which can be triggered when detecting low-level acceleration and dangerous analytes, such as viruses, bacteria, and explosives, will be tested experimentally and analyzed theoretically to shed light on their usefulness and potential. The research will also explore the rich nonlinear dynamics of electrically actuated shallow arches and its potential to realize new band-pass filters, sensitive mass detectors, and low-power actuators.
This project can have significant impact on society in various aspects. The major theme of the research is the exploration of new ideas of smart devices based on simple structures (beams and arches). Their smart functionality is a result of their interesting dynamics and not because of complexity in shape or geometry. This fact means that they are simple and easy to fabricate, making them of potentially low cost. Hence, they can be deployed in many places to enhance health, safety, and security. The exciting applications of this research will be used to inspire and motivate students from all levels to study and investigate the fields of Nonlinear Dynamics, Vibrations, and MEMS. This research will provide excellent training experience for students. The students will be trained on modeling, simulating, and testing MEMS devices in a team of multi-disciplinary researchers and professors. Knowledge from this research will support the development of new graduate and undergraduate courses in MEMS dynamics and will add and update on the material of the courses of linear/nonlinear dynamics and vibrations. Also, this project will train undergraduate minority students over the duration of the project in coordination with the Binghamton Success Program. Knowledge from this research will also be transferred to local schools through organized workshops for teachers, curriculum developments, and exciting in-class demonstrations.
