Advanced materials

The shock tube in the Dynamic Photomechanics Laboratory simulates a blast by directing a controlled shock wave towards a specimen.

Advanced materials and structures in extreme environments

Professor Arun Shukla’s team literally blows things up to learn how to better keep them together.

Using shock tubes, a 2,000-gallon underwater pressure tank and high-speed cameras capable of capturing thousands of frames per second, they can slow down time to study how materials will act under extreme temperatures, pH, heat transfer rates, and pressure.

Other engineers are exploring the effect that extreme environments have on carbon composite materials by studying them at the molecular level, as new materials are replacing steel and aluminum in applications such as aircraft and undersea robots. They are researching new composite materials, that are lighter and easier to maintain than traditional metals, but have a higher tolerance for damage.


  • COE Welcomes New Faculty - Mehrshad Amini, Assistant Professor, CVE/OCE Dr. Mehrshad Amini will join the University of Rhode Island in Fall 2023 as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Ocean Engineering. He completed his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Pennsylvania State University in 2021. […]
  • Professor Arun Shukla Awarded ASME Drucker Medal - By Hugh Markey For the past 42 years, Prof. Arun Shukla has been a part of the URI mechanical, industrial, and systems engineering department, supervising over a hundred graduate students, conducting research, and making substantial contributions to the engineering community. Those efforts were recently recognized with the awarding of the Daniel C. Drucker Medal, given […]
  • Ash Giri in lab Ash Giri Published in Nature - Of all of the honors in science and engineering, being published in the journal Nature is at the top of the list. Congratulations to URI Engineering assistant professor Ash Giri and his student C.J. Dionne on their recent publication. Ash’s research is related to nanoscale thermal transport, energy conversion and storage, nano mechanics, condensed matter […]
  • Michael Platek Never a Dull Day for College of Engineering’s Michael Platek - As an electrical materials research engineer, there’s no such thing as a typical day for Michael Platek. Among many other responsibilities, Platek makes sure some of the most sophisticated and expensive research equipment at URI works properly.

Faculty

Distinguished Engineering Professor

Chemical Engineering

401.874.2804
bosea@uri.edu

Professor and Graduate Director

Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering

401.874.2356
chelidze@uri.edu

Associate Professor

Civil and Environmental Engineering

401.874.5637
sumanta_das@uri.edu

Assistant Professor

Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering

401.874.4248
ashgiri@uri.edu

Distinguished Engineering Professor

Chemical Engineering

401.874.2085
ogregory@uri.edu

Assistant Professor

Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering

401.874.4556
hmatos@uri.edu

Assistant Professor

Chemical Engineering

ryanps@uri.edu

Professor Research

Ocean Engineering

401.874.6591
gpotty@uri.edu

Simon Ostrach Professor

Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering

401.874.2283
shuklaa@uri.edu

Professor

Mechanical, Industrial and Systems Engineering

401.874.5934
taggart@uri.edu


People are just now discovering all the benefits of these materials in terms of cost savings and their performance in extreme environments. Our research is helping to advance the field.
Arun Shukla