Vermaak awarded Naval grant for research on experimental methods for cyclic plasticity

Lehigh MechE Associate Professor Dr. Natasha Vermaak recently received a three-year, ~$450k grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The ONR Multi-Scale Mechanics program supports endeavors to “develop multiscale and multiphysics mechanics theories that bridge the nano scale to the continuum scale to predict material and structural strength.” Vermaak’s proposed research is to advance multiview hybrid image correlation for the characterization and detection of cyclic plastic properties and performance. For almost a century researchers (e.g., Taylor and Quinney, 1934) have been exploiting the heat of plastic work to understand and detect elastoplastic phenomena. With a modern multiview and hybrid (visible and infrared) imaging approach, Vermaak is excited to explore the cyclic elastoplastic interactions between material and structural scales in a case study on auxetic structures that exhibit effective negative Poisson’s ratios.