Hamid Dalir

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https://hdl.handle.net/1805/26673

Lighter Composite Parts for Automotive and Aerospace Structures

While conventional carbon fiber composites are being widely used in aerospace and defense sectors, their layered nature causes interlaminar strength disadvantages leading to their premature failure under operational loading. After working for almost eight years in composites R&D for aerospace and defense and understanding the key challenges, Professor Dalir, along with Professor Mangilal Agarwal and Professor Amanda Siegel, started investigating the use of fine filaments ("'100 nm) of Carbon Nanotube/Epoxy nanocomposites developed as part of this project at INDI enabling the industry a potential 30% additional weight saving.

Manufacturing lighter but tougher structures motivated the researchers to inaugurate a university startup named "Multiscale Integrated Technology Solutions LLC" in June of 2019 where the focus has been on working with companies such as Dallara, SRAM, and Bauer to reduce the weight and cost of their parts which means less use of non-eco-friendly carbon fibers leading to lower CO2 emissions improving the quality of life of our nation. In 2021, they secured several grants and investments on their technology. They also won a statewide competition held by Indiana Elevate Nexus, which resulted in investments from the state in their technology.

They also received over $400,000.00 grants from various agencies including National Science Foundation (NSF), Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC), and Elevate, among others. In addition, they have been featured in several interviews such as "Inside Indiana Business", "Tech Talk with Steve Sweitzer'', "FOX 59", and "WTHR".

They anticipate additional investments in 2022. MITS has secured the key IP from IUPUI including full rights to develop, exercise, license, sublicense, market, and sell technologies related to the material system proposed in this research.

Professor Dalir's translation of research into advanced, eco-friendly automotive and aerospace structures is another excellent example of how IUPUI's faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

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Browsing Hamid Dalir by Subject "buckling load"

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    Influence of Employing Laminated Isogrid Configuration on Mechanical Behavior of Grid Structures
    (Sage, 2019-08) Ehsani, Amir; Dalir, Hamid; Mechanical Engineering and Energy, School of Engineering and Technology
    For a long time, a single grid layer, such as isogrid, have been utilized to strengthen a shell or plate or as an independent structural member for various applications. Laminated grid structures consist of several grid layers that can have different in-plane orientations or can be made from different materials. Therefore, using laminated configuration instead of conventional grids yields to an extensive variety of configurations with different coupling effects and cost. In the current paper, to evaluate the appropriateness of laminated isogrids, the vibration and stability behaviors of a conventional isogrid are compared with corresponding laminated isogrid plate. The first-order shear deformation plate theory as well as the Ritz theorem is utilized to achieve the critical buckling loads and free vibration frequencies of the plates. The influence of increasing the number of isogrid plies and changing pattern geometries on mechanical behaviors of the laminated isogrid plate is also investigated. The results imply that utilization of the laminated isogrids remarkably enhances the buckling load and free vibration frequency values of the plates.
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    Multi-Objective Optimization of Composite Angle Grid Plates for Maximum Buckling Load and Minimum Weight Using Genetic Algorithms and Neural Networks
    (Elsevier, 2019-12) Ehsani, Amir; Dalir, Hamid; Mechanical and Energy Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
    The present work describes an optimization process based on the ε-constraint method to find an optimum design to maximize the critical buckling load and minimize the structural weight of an angle grid plate. A comprehensive geometrical model is considered including all geometrical design variables of the grid. In order to achieve a precise and effective approximation of the buckling load, an artificial neural network (ANN) is employed. Training data for ANN is obtained by the Mindlin plate theory as well as the Ritz method. The ANN is combined with genetic algorithms (GA) to find the optimized design variables for an angle grid structure. The results provide a wide range of geometrical data for designers to choose the maximum buckling load at the minimum structural weight.