Alper Erturk | |
---|---|
Born | April 3, 1982 |
Education | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, METU |
Scientific career | |
Fields | |
Institutions | Georgia Institute of Technology, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering |
Alper Erturk (born April 3, 1982) is a mechanical engineer and the Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. [1]
Erturk leads the Smart Structures and Dynamical Systems Laboratory [2] at Georgia Tech. His publications are mostly in the areas of dynamics, vibration, and wave propagation involving smart materials and metamaterials. [3] Erturk made fundamental contributions in the field of energy harvesting from dynamical systems. His distributed-parameter piezoelectric energy harvester models [4] [5] have been widely used by many research groups. He was one of the first researchers to explore nonlinear dynamic phenomena for frequency bandwidth enhancement in energy harvesting, specifically by using a bistable Duffing oscillator with electromechanical coupling, namely the piezomagnetoelastic energy harvester. [6] His early energy harvesting work also included the use of aeroelastic flutter to enable scalable airflow energy harvesting through piezoaeroelastic systems. [7] His collaborative work on flexoelectricity [8] established a framework to exploit strain gradient-induced polarization in elastic dielectrics for enhanced electricity generation at the nanoscale. [9]
Erturk's group also contributed to smart material-based bio-inspired aquatic locomotion by developing the first untethered piezoelectric swimmer [10] and explored fluid-structure interaction via underwater actuation of piezoelectric cantilevers. [11] [12] Their recent efforts resulted in multifunctional piezoelectric concepts for bio-inspired swimming and energy harvesting. [13]
Another research topic explored by his group is wireless power and data transfer using ultrasound waves. [14] [15] More recently, Erturk and collaborators investigated the leveraging of guided waves in cranial and transcranial ultrasound. [16] [17] [18]
Erturk and collaborators also explored metamaterials and phononic crystals for elastic and acoustic wave phenomena. They developed and experimentally tested some of the first 2D elastic wave [19] [20] and 3D bulk acoustic wave [21] [22] lenses, locally resonant metamaterial-based structural theories and experiments, [23] including programmable piezoelectric metamaterials and metastructures. [24]
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure and latent heat. It is derived from Ancient Greek πιέζω (piézō) 'to squeeze or press', and ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron) 'amber'. The German form of the word (Piezoelektricität) was coined in 1881 by the German physicist Wilhelm Gottlieb Hankel; the English word was coined in 1883.
A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is rarely observed in naturally occurring materials. They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics. These materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence. Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but from their newly designed structures. Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them their smart properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.
Aluminium nitride (AlN) is a solid nitride of aluminium. It has a high thermal conductivity of up to 321 W/(m·K) and is an electrical insulator. Its wurtzite phase (w-AlN) has a band gap of ~6 eV at room temperature and has a potential application in optoelectronics operating at deep ultraviolet frequencies.
Energy harvesting (EH) – also known as power harvesting,energy scavenging, or ambient power – is the process by which energy is derived from external sources, then stored for use by small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics, condition monitoring, and wireless sensor networks.
A thin-film bulk acoustic resonator is a device consisting of a piezoelectric material manufactured by thin film methods between two conductive – typically metallic – electrodes and acoustically isolated from the surrounding medium. The operation is based on the piezoelectricity of the piezolayer between the electrodes.
Acoustic levitation is a method for suspending matter in air against gravity using acoustic radiation pressure from high intensity sound waves.
Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties in a programmable fashion, based upon user input or autonomous sensing. Programmable matter is thus linked to the concept of a material which inherently has the ability to perform information processing.
Picosecond ultrasonics is a type of ultrasonics that uses ultra-high frequency ultrasound generated by ultrashort light pulses. It is a non-destructive technique in which picosecond acoustic pulses penetrate into thin films or nanostructures to reveal internal features such as film thickness as well as cracks, delaminations and voids. It can also be used to probe liquids. The technique is also referred to as picosecond laser ultrasonics or laser picosecond acoustics.
Stuart Palmer FREng, also known as S. B. Palmer, is the honorary secretary of the Institute of Physics, and was the deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Warwick between 1999 and 2009. He is an emeritus professor of physics at Warwick who has worked in condensed matter physics and engineering physics and has extensively exploited the technique of ultrasound.
An acoustic metamaterial, sonic crystal, or phononic crystal is a material designed to control, direct, and manipulate sound waves or phonons in gases, liquids, and solids. Sound wave control is accomplished through manipulating parameters such as the bulk modulus β, density ρ, and chirality. They can be engineered to either transmit, or trap and amplify sound waves at certain frequencies. In the latter case, the material is an acoustic resonator.
A seismic metamaterial, is a metamaterial that is designed to counteract the adverse effects of seismic waves on artificial structures, which exist on or near the surface of the Earth. Current designs of seismic metamaterials utilize configurations of boreholes, trees or proposed underground resonators to act as a large scale material. Experiments have observed both reflections and bandgap attenuation from artificially induced seismic waves. These are the first experiments to verify that seismic metamaterials can be measured for frequencies below 100 Hz, where damage from Rayleigh waves is the most harmful to artificial structures.
Mechanical metamaterials are artificial materials with mechanical properties that are defined by their mesostructure in addition to than their composition. They can be seen as a counterpart to the rather well-known family of optical metamaterials. They are often also termed elastodynamic metamaterials and include acoustic metamaterials as a special case of vanishing shear. Their mechanical properties can be designed to have values which cannot be found in nature.
Platonic crystals are periodic structures which are designed to guide flexural wave energy through thin elastic plates.
Kenji Uchino is an American electronics engineer, physicist, academic, inventor and industry executive. He is currently a professor of Electrical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, where he also directs the International Center for Actuators and Transducers at Materials Research Institute. He is the former associate director at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office.
Daniel J. Inman is an American mechanical engineer, Kelly Johnson Collegiate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan.
Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb is a mechanical engineer in the field of micro and nano engineering and mechanics of materials. She is the Harris Saunders, Jr. Chair and Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Bassiri-Gharb leads the Smart Materials, Advanced Research and Technology (SMART) Laboratory at Georgia Tech. Her research seeks to characterize and optimize the optical and electric response of interferometric modulator (IMOD) displays. She also investigates novel materials to improve reliability and processing of IMOD.
Katia Bertoldi is the William and Ami Kuan Danoff Professor of Applied Mechanics at Harvard University. Her research has been highlighted by many news sources including the BBC, and as of June 2020 had been cited over 11,000 times.
Dragan Damjanovic is a Swiss-Bosnian-Herzegovinian materials scientist. From 2008 to 2022, he was a professor of material sciences at EPFL and head of the Group for Ferroelectrics and Functional Oxides.
Zhong Lin Wang is a Chinese-American physicist, materials scientist and engineer specialized in nanotechnology, energy science and electronics. He received his PhD from Arizona State University in 1987. He is the Hightower Chair in Materials Science and Engineering and Regents' Professor Chair Emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology, US.