Achievement

Darren Hartl’s research on shape memory alloys includes analysis of multi-component aerospace applications and characterization and modeling of plasticity in these materials. His work has led to significant national and international recognition. For work involving the plasticity of these materials he received the Best Student Paper Award at both the 2008 ASME SMASIS Conference (Ellicott City MD) and the 2009 SPIE Smart Materials/NDE Conference (San Diego). For their paper "Aerospace Applications of Shape Memory Alloys" Hartl and IGERT coPI Lagoudas were awarded the 2009 William Sweet Smith Prize (Inst. Mechanical Engineers-U.K.) for Best Paper in Aerospace Engineering. This paper discusses how shape memory alloys have become increasingly important for reducing weight and increasing compactness. Hartl’s work has shown that standardized testing on simple specimens can be linked to comprehensive models, successfully predicting the response of complicated active structural systems.