MAE Seminar – Exploring Advanced Topological Metamaterials for Elastic Wave Manipulation

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MAE Seminar – Exploring Advanced Topological Metamaterials for Elastic Wave Manipulation

Dear Undergraduate and Graduate Students, Faculty, and Staff,
You are invited! UF Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering’s Seminar Series
This is a perfect opportunity to enjoy some coffee, cookies, and captivating talks! These sessions feature amazing guest speakers, from academic trailblazers and industry movers to our very own faculty candidates showing off their expertise and fresh perspectives.
Come for the treats, stay for the engaging discussions, and connect with fellow MAE enthusiasts. Everyone is welcome!

Feb 18, 2025, at 12:50pm, Location: MAE-A 303

Dr. Patrick Dorin
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Abstract
Mechanical metamaterials facilitate the manipulation of vibrations and elastic waves in structures, a useful feature that has been leveraged in numerous engineering applications. Recently, researchers integrated topological phase theory from condensed matter physics into mechanical metamaterials to create topological metamaterials. Topological metamaterials enable the confinement of elastic waves within waveguides that follow complex pathways and are immune to losses caused by structural imperfections. While topological metamaterials hold immense promise, research gaps exist that hinder their broad implementation and provide opportunities for scientific advancement. This research seeks to address these gaps by pioneering a new class of advanced topological metamaterials that achieve tunable, broadband, easily integrated, and multidimensional elastic wave control. A 2D piezoelectric metamaterial and a 3D metastable metamaterial are created that achieve unprecedented adaptive capabilities. A 3D topological metamaterial is devised that exploits the rich dimensionality of 3D resonant structures to attain frequency-, polarization-, and layer-dependent wave control. Finally, higher-order topological phases are used to synthesize a topological metamaterial with innovative features that are leveraged to investigate wave control in fractal geometries and achieve wave-based mechanical logic. Overall, this research establishes groundbreaking wave control capabilities and uncovers new fundamental insight into the interplay between topological and elastic wave physics.

Biography
Patrick Dorin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Prof. Kon-Well Wang’s Structural Dynamics and Controls Laboratory at the University of Michigan in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2023 under the advisement of Prof. Wang. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame in 2015, where he conducted research under the direction of Prof. Steven Schmid. Upon completing his undergraduate studies and prior to his graduate education, he worked for two years as a design and analysis engineer for the synthesis of inertial guidance systems at Honeywell Aerospace. His research interests include structural dynamics and vibrations, elastic wave propagation, mechanical metamaterials, topological phases in mechanical systems, and physical/mechanical intelligence.

MAE Faculty Host: Patrick Musgrave