| Meet the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Pavana Prabhakar Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
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Research area The Manufacturing and Mechanics Lab (MaMeL’s) overarching goal is to enable damage-tolerant and resilient lightweight composite materials for aircrafts, marine vessels, automobiles, etc. The focus is on establishing fundamental knowledge about how composites behave in multi-physics environments, including dynamic impact, extreme temperatures (both high and low) and moisture, and utilizing this knowledge to design novel architected composite materials. To that end, the lab conducts foundational research on mechanics-based material designs (both computationally and experimentally) of architected polymer composites and their fabrication by advancing relevant manufacturing techniques. The team’s research occurs at the intersection of advanced manufacturing, solid mechanics, materials science and computational science, and results in the design and fabrication of structural and functional parts.
What excites you about your work?
“My research lies at the intersection of mechanics, manufacturing and materials. I am particularly excited by the ability to engineer lightweight composite materials for unique performance in extreme conditions, such as dynamic impact, fatigue, sub-zero temperatures, high humidity, excessive internal pressure and microbial exposure.”
What do you hope to achieve?
“I aim to develop fundamental insights into the process-structure-property relationships of composite materials, to enhance their performance and longevity. By doing so, I hope to drive a paradigm shift in the design and fabrication of lightweight structures.”
We are excited about the innovative work from Professor Prabhakar in the field of lightweight composite materials.
– Michael Carey, WARF, Licensing Manager
Want to learn more?
Michael Carey, [email protected], 608.960.9867