Biomedical engineering is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It associates the design and problem-solving skills of engineers with medical and biological sciences to improve healthcare diagnosis and treatment. In this fast-emerging field, the department is involved at several levels. Examples include developing MEMS sensors for pathogen identification, tracer-less diagnostics of bio-molecules, researching biological membranes to ultimately help cure disorders like certain cancers and Alzheimer’s diseasese and developing tunable valves for Hydrocephalus.
Research
We conduct fundamental and applied research in these broad areas, reaching well beyond traditionally identified domains. Members are engaged in extremely diverse projects that include probing the mysteries of the tiny cell to deciphering the Earthʼs geophysics; designing microfluidic sensors to understanding multiphysics flows; estimating the strength of tangled polymer chains to employing sturdy composites for aerospace structures; probing the stability of complex fluids to controlling autonomous vehicles; leveraging atomistic simulations to understand macroscopic behavior of designer materials to designing these materials. The opportunities and challenges are endless! The group may be broadly divided into the following main themes:
How the motion of crystal defects affects the plastic deformation in metals has been an important area of study since the 1930s. Controlling the nucleation and motion of defects now constitute an essential part of several routine metal manufacturing processes. On the other hand, the idea that motion of tiny defects can be harnessed to influence macroscopic properties of materials has led to a strengthening of the connections between mechanics and materials science. Today, the demands on materials are diverse. Materials need to be designed to meet diverse and often conflicting requirements: stiff yet high damping factor, high impact strength and low thermal conductivity, etc. On the other hand, miniaturisation of structures calls for dealing with incredibly small volumes of materials, whose mechanical behavior can be significantly different from their bulkier counterparts. Moreover, newer challenges thrown up by synthetic materials like polymers and composites, exploration of novel structure-property correlations, for example, piezoelectricity, shape memory effects, etc., and engineering applications arising out of properties previously regarded unsuitable, as, for example, in the study of soft materials in biological materials, make the synergy between mechanics and materials science both imperative and exciting.
The mechanics of aerial vehicles present a unique challenge due to the interaction of highly flexible structures with extremely complicated fluid-dynamic environment. The group focuses on a wide variety of aerospace disciplines involving various aspects of fixed wing, rotary wing and flapping wing vehicles. Key thrust areas include analysis, design and development of Micro Air Vehicles, composite wings, aeroelasticity, unsteady aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, vortex dynamics, inverse flight dynamics simulation. The focus is on fundamental understanding through the solution of cutting edge problems, culminating in design and development of next generation flight vehicles.
Most flows in nature and in the industry contain two or more constitutents and/or involve the interaction of several different physical fields. Analyzing such systems is extremely challenging. The department has ongoing research in the areas of Rayleigh-Bernard convection, fluid stability, jets, granular flows, magnetohydrodynamics, and turbulence modeling. We utilize and develop tools such as computational fluid dynamics, statistical mechanics, kinetic theories for dense gases, and also experimental methodologies like hot-wire anemometer and other imaging techniques employed in various in-house water and wind tunnels. Important areas of application are geophysics, pipe flows, bird and insect flight, flight vehicles and biological systems.
Characterizing and innovating newer and better materials is essential for building futuristic micro-/nano- sized machines, sensors and structures that, in turn, have significant impact in the aerospace, automotive, biomedical, defense and energy sectors. The subject is also extremely relevant to geophysics where multiple scales are ubiquitous. This calls for understanding how finer length and time scales in a material, or a process, affect its macroscopic behavior, and this constitutes the subject of multiscale mechanics.
The group has a large number of mechanicians researching and modeling materials such as carbon nanotubes, nano-polymers and nanocomposites, functionally-graded composites, glassy polymers, polycrystals, hydrogels, foams, thin films, grains and soils. Multiscale processes of interest include manufacturing processes, shear banding, creep, grain boundary mobility, dynamic fracture, dislocation dynamics, void nucelation, crazing, phase transformation, grain segregation and sorting, adhesion, wave scattering, impact, and cratering. We employ and develop analytical and computational frameworks such as molecular dynamics, nonlinear finite elements, Galerkin methods, homogenization, damage mechanics, lattice dynamics, stochastic mechanics, plasticity, and nonlinear continuum thermodynamics; and also experimental tools like the split-hopkinson bar, photoelasticity, digital image correlation, ulta high-speed imaging, laser-doppler vibrometer, and high resolution microscopes such as SEM.