SHORT BACKGROUND

The Technical University of Crete (TUC) is a State University under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and was founded in 1977 in Chania, Crete, Greece. It is the second Technical University in Greece and admitted its first students in 1984. The purpose of the institution is to conduct research, to provide undergraduate and graduate programs in modern engineering fields as well as to develop links with Greek industry. The Technical University of Crete is comprised of five schools which grant engineering degrees upon completion of a five-year course. The Schools are: School of Architectural Engineering. School of Production Engineering & Management, School of Mineral Resources Engineering, School of Electronic & Computer Engineering and School of Environmental Engineering.

The Applied MEchanics Laboratory (AMEL) is one of the Research Laboratories of the School of Architectural Engineering and is primary involved in the structural health monitoring, mechanical characterization of engineering structures, non-destructive evaluation techniques and materials technology. The secondary research objective of the AMEL aims at contributing to the realistic description of the structural behavior under various loading conditions (static or dynamic) by employing analysis and examination of all types of structural failures and assessment of the strength of damaged structures. In this laboratory, we, recently, specialize also in the design of smart structures, with particular concentration on the development of innovative actuators incorporating smart materials such as piezoelectrics, electrostrictives, and shape memory alloys. Structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques with the use of advanced sensing equipments is one of the recent focus of objectives of the AMEL. Other objectives of the AMEL Lab could be considered the investigation of repair and strengthening techniques, the earthquake engineering analysis of RC buildings, steel and masonry structures, the analysis of the behavior of repaired and strengthened RC or masonry structures under simulated earthquake loading, the nonlinear and experimental simulation of tunnel structures and buried pipelines networks by taking into account soil-structure interaction and finally the investigation and analysis of the contribution of different base isolation systems in buildings for eliminated seismic vibrations.

In the AMEL, we believe that there needs to be a paradigm shift from generating new materials purely through experimental methods to the use of computer models to effectively identify potential materials systems. We see this is as the most ideal way to develop advanced materials to meet the increasing demands of future engineering applications in a timely fashion.

LABORATORY DIVISIONS

·                    Educational division of AMEL.

·                    Structural Simulation and Numerical Analysis division of AMEL.

·                    Division  of Material Testing and Quality Control.

·                    Manufacturing division of AMEL.

 GENERAL OBJECTIVES

 The general objective of Applied Mechanics Laboratory (AMEL) is to provide quantitative relations between the mezzo-microscopic structure of materials and their macroscopic mechanical properties. In this laboratory, we, recently, specialize in the design of smart structures, with particular concentration on the development of innovative actuators incorporating smart materials such as piezoelectrics, electrostrictives, and shape memory alloys. We are interested in continuing research in actuators as well as branching out into other smart structure applications such as vibration control, shape control and health monitoring. In our research we put emphasis not only on the design of novel devices, but also on the understanding of designs through electromechanical modeling; physical realization of the design through development of manufacturing techniques; and assurance of the reliability of designs through experimentation. Personnel associated with the lab have a strong background in design, solid mechanics, dynamics, vibrations, material processing, acoustics, and manufacturing.

Emphasis is also placed on the evaluation of deformation and fracture behavior of metallic, RC, composite, polymeric functional and biomaterials in multi scale with computational as well as experimental methods. In addition, members of the AMEL can carry out consulting services in connection with the structural resistance of RC, masonry and steel buildings in the design and construction stages.

The Laboratory activities are oriented to the research and development of suitable mechanical – mathematical – computational models for design (stress and strain analysis, stress intesity factors, damage and its applications to life predictions), sensitivity analysis and optimal design of structural components made of elastic, inelastic and new materials (ceramics and composites in general).

The Laboratory is devoted to the study and development of mechanical models using different variational formulation frameworks and advanced numerical approximation scheme for the Finite Element and Boundary Element Methods and theirs computational implementation using Advanced Programming Techniques in Fortran and C++.

Its primary goal is to provide with advanced scientific and technological know-how for modeling and solving real industrial and structural problems through numerical simulation

GENERAL ACTIVITIES

Training activities

Research activities

 Partnership activities for special engineering and structural problems

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

The AMEL offers servicing courses in the curriculum of four different Schools of the Technical University of Crete, Greece: in the School of architectural Engineering, the School of Production Engineering, the School of Mineral Resources Engineering and the School of Environmental Engineering. At entry level, classical engineering mechanics and strength of materials are compulsory courses of the curriculums of the relevant schools.

 RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

The Applied MEchanics Laboratory (AMEL) is primarily involved in the computational modelling and mechanical characterization of engineering and high performance and advanced materials. In the AMEL, we believe that there needs to be a paradigm shift from generating new materials purely through experimental methods to the use of computer models to effectively identify potential materials systems. We see this is as the most ideal way to develop advanced materials to meet the increasing demands of future engineering applications in a timely fashion. The secondary research objective of the AMEL aims at contributing to the realistic description of the structural behavior under various loading conditions (static or dynamic). This includes nonlinearities due to either the material behavior or geometric effects and safety assessment under different thermomechanical and high strain rate loading effects. Experimental verification is attempted during all stages of analysis. In some details, the current research activities focuses on the following topics:

Variational formulations for material behavior modeling with particular emphasis on elasticity, plasticity, viscoplasticity, damage and fracture.

Mechanical modeling of beams, arches, plates and shells and its applications in the design of structural components in the Civil, Mechanical and Naval Industry.

Variational formulations for Non-smooth mechanical problems such as: Contact and Limit analysis problems.

Continuum variational formulations for sensitivity Analysis including its applications to Optimal design of structural components and Fracture Mechanics.

Research of high performance computational algorithms including mathematical programming, substructuring, domain decomposition and parallelism.

Analysis and examination of all types of structure failures and assessment of the strength of damaged structures. Investigation of repair and strengthening techniques.

Seismic risk mitigation techniques for urban planning and construction

PHYSICAL TESTING FACILITIES

Fatigue & Fracture Test Facilities

Residual Stress Measurements

Photoelastic & Strain Gauge Facilities

Heat Treatment & Microstructural Analysis

Nondestructive Test Facility

Structural Health Monitoring and Dynamic Characteristics Evaluation Test Facilities

Software for Operational Modal Analysis : ARTeMIS Extractor (Structural Vibration Solutions, www.svibs.com)

COMPUTATIONAL FACILITIES

Hardware

Software