Research

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier

Networks Materials

My area of research lies under the vast field of Networks materials; the first question that will be in your mind is, what are these? How are these different from other materials such as metal, ceramic, or plastics? What is the need to study them separately? What is the need to study them? And what kind of research can be done on them.
So please let me give you a chance to give you a brief introduction to the Polymer materials, and then I will continue.
Living organisms of our world build with proteins, and proteinogenic amino acids, which are expensive to produce, so building with less material is a condition for the survival of the species. And as you know, spanning a volume with fibers is much cheaper than filling the same volume with a continuum material. Some of the most versatile and affordable materials humans have ever developed are made from fibers. So if we formalize this into one, we can say:
"The class of Network Materials includes materials that contain a fiber network as the main structural component and in which the network controls the overall mechanical behavior."

Reference

Examples of network materials: Fig. (a) absorbent, high porosity paper, (b) thermally bonded polypropylene nonwoven with thermal bonds, (c) stress fibers in the cytoskeleton, and (d) collagen structure of arthritic human knee cartilage [Reference]

Non-woven polymer nano-fiber networks and their composites have garnered considerable attention in recent years due to their unique mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. These materials have a wide range of applications, including tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, energy storage, filtration, and sensors. In 2021, the global market value of non-woven fabrics was estimated to be between $40-$50 billion, while the production of non-woven fabrics reached ~13 million tons annually. The industry has experienced a steady growth rate of approximately -7.5% annually worldwide, and there is a significant opportunity for our country to capitalize on this growth. As a result, understanding the mechanics of the deformation of these materials, which is a relatively new and rapidly growing field, is crucial to optimizing their performance and developing new applications.
The study of the mechanics of non-woven nano-fiber networks presents significant challenges, both experimentally and computationally, due to the complex hierarchical structure and several multi-physics phenomena at play at different length scales. These materials are typically composed of randomly oriented nanofibers whose constituent properties are challenging to study, and the existing literature on this subject is limited. Moreover, these networks form a highly porous micro-structure with a range of pore sizes. Despite being challenging to study, the unique structure of nanofiber networks gives rise to desirable mechanical properties, such as a high surface area-to-volume ratio, low density, and high porosity, making them suitable for various applications.

Contact Mechanics

Soon it will be written.

Fig. (a) Electrospinning of polymer, (b) Random Network, (c) Densely packed fiber yarns [Reference].

Fig. A. Random and B. Regular nano-fiber polymer networks and [Refernce] (C) Contact between two neighborhood nanofibers.

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