Achievement

Brent Volk, under the guidance of IGERT co-PI Lagoudas, has focused on characterization of shape memory polymers (SMPs). While shape memory alloys (SMAs) are well known for actuator applications, new polymeric materials now coming on-line have the ability to recover from much larger deformations, with new applications such as for medical sutures and stents. His second-year research experience led 1-D calibration of a constitutive model capable of describing the large deformation response of shape memory polymers, and collaborations with Cornerstone Research Group, Inc. and Dr. Yi-Chao Chen at the University of Houston. These efforts have resulted in two new publications as well as a conference proceedings paper and a number of presentations, including a presentation of his work at the International Conference on Adaptive Structures and Technologies, Ascona, Switzerland.