You're invited to attend the talk 

Nonlinear Dynamics of Things: From Understanding Nature to Designing New Mechanical Systems
 

by

Prof. Eleonora Tubaldi

Assistant Professor
University of Arizona 
 

Thursday, October 24
3 - 4 PM
Guggenheim 442

About the Talk: 
At a first glance pipes conveying fluid, soft tissue, and buckled steel beams seem to have nothing to share. However, all these systems show interesting behaviors when we approach them from a nonlinear dynamics perspective. These dynamic behaviors are rich, diverse and sometimes unexpected so that they can be harnessed to achieve pioneering designs intended to have impact on different facets of our everyday life.

The talk will be divided in two main sections: during the first one, we will highlight how the nonlinear dynamics of soft cardiovascular vessels and prostheses is crucial in understanding their functioning and behavior. In this regard, the design of the next generation aortic prosthesis might be based on its ability to mimic the nonlinear dynamics of the native aorta conveying pulsatile blood flow. Even pathologies such as aortic dissection and rupture which currently present no biomechanical explanation, could be potentially caused by a nonlinear dynamic and fluid-structure interaction phenomenon.

In the second part of the talk, we will discuss how the nonlinear dynamics of buckled elastic beams can be exploited for engineering nonlinear mechanical metamaterials. By carefully assembling shallow arches in 2D arrangements, we can engineer fully snapping unit cells, which snap between two equally stable energy configurations. These unit cells can tile a 2D space which will have both bistability and snapping-through behavior. This would open new promising paths because controlling waves capability can be exploited in mechanical signal transmissions, mechanical diodes, targeted energy transmission and locally energy storage, switcher designs and logic gates.

About the Speaker: 
Dr. Tubaldi joined the University of Arizona in January 2018 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and obtained, in the same university, a second appointment in the Department of Applied Mathematics GIDP in May 2018. She received her Ph.D. degree in July 2017 in Mechanical Engineering at McGill University, her M.S. Double Degree Diploma at Politecnico di Milano and École Polytechnique de Montréal in Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering (2013), and her B.S. at Politecnico di Milano in Aerospace Engineering (2010).

Her research interests sit at the interface of nonlinear dynamics, soft materials science and fluid-structure interactions for applications in biomechanics, prosthetic design, and nonlinear mechanical metamaterial.

She is author of several peer-reviewed international journal papers. She serves as Associated Editor for  Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines: An International Journal. She is reviewer of J. of Fluids and Structures, Int. J. of Nonlinear Mechanics, AIAA Journal, and Computers in Biology and Medicine. She is member of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Dynamics & Control System & Structures (DCSS) Technical Committee. She has been awarded national scholarship Doctoral Research Quebec Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students (PBEEE) and Mechanical Engineering Doctoral Award (MEDA) at McGill University.