MMAE Seminar - Controlling the Flow of Sound and Heat through Phononic Engineering
Join the Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering department for a seminar featuring Dr. Ankit Srivastava, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Srivastava will present his talk entitled: Controlling the Flow of Sound and Heat Through Phononic Engineering.
Abstract
Controlling the flow of sound waves, stress waves, and heat can have deep applications in the real world. These include, but are not limited to, industrial applications such as noise and vibration control, defense applications in sonar, stealth, and shock mitigation areas, and energy applications such as in the field of thermoelectrics. In this talk we consider the potential of the emerging field of phononics in providing us with said control. Phononics is the study of sound/stress wave propagation in periodic structures. We elucidate the general principles of field and clarify how the periodicity of the structure leads to a rich modulation of the waves. These modulations include the appearance of frequency zones where wave propagation is prohibited (stop-bands) and other zones where wave propagation characteristics are highly anisotropic. We show, through finite element simulations, how this rich physics could be harnessed to create cavities where waves are permanently localized, materials where the conventional refraction laws are seemingly violated, and flat slabs which can, nevertheless, focus waves to a small zone. We finally describe how the study of phononics is deeply connected to the thermal properties of a material, discussing the potential and the challenges which exist in the area of thermal engineering through phononics.
About the Speaker
Dr. Ankit Srivastava graduated with a PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) where he worked with Prof. Francesco Lanza di Scalea in the area of structural health monitoring and non- destructive evaluation through guided waves. Subsequently he moved on to a postdoctoral research position with Prof. Sia Nemat-Nasser in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at UCSD. His postdoctoral work concerned waves in periodic structures in general and dynamic homogenization and metamaterials in particular. He joined IIT as a faculty member in the MMAE department in Fall of 2013.