Featured Scholar: Hamid Dalir, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering & Technology
Associate Professor of Motorsports Engineering
Research Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpH6eUrGpzw
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.
Selected Publications in IUPUI ScholarWorks
With several research works contributed to IUPUI's free, open access repository, Professor Dalir has made translational research knowledge available to professionals, researchers, students, and communities around the world.
Biswas, P. K., Liyanage, A. A. H., Jadhav, M., Agarwal, M., & Dalir, H. (2022). Higher strength carbon fiber lithium-ion polymer battery embedded multifunctional composites for structural applications. Polymer Composites. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/28230
Moheimani R, Aliahmad N, Aliheidari N, Agarwal M, Dalir H. Thermoplastic polyurethane flexible capacitive proximity sensor reinforced by CNTs for applications in the creative industries. Sci Rep. 2021;11(1):1104. Published 2021 Jan 13. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/28829
Aliahmad, N., Biswas, P. K., Wable, V., Hernandez, I., Siegel, A., Dalir, H., & Agarwal, M. (2021). Electrospun Thermosetting Carbon Nanotube–Epoxy Nanofibers. ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 3(2), 610–619. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/28645
Asel Ananda Habarakada Liyanage, Pias Kumar Biswas, Amanda Siegel, Mangilal Agarwal, and Hamid Dalir, "Multi-nozzle electrospinning optimization of carbon nanotube/epoxy submicron filaments – A numerical study" ACS Fall 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/27817
Moheimani, R., Pasharavesh, A., Agarwal, M., & Dalir, H. (2020). Mathematical Model and Experimental Design of Nanocomposite Proximity Sensors. IEEE Access, 8, 153087–153097. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/28452
Aliahmad, N.; Wable, V.; Biswas, P.; Hernandez, I.; Dalir, H.; Agarwal, M., Fabrication of Submicron Thermosetting Carbon Nanotube-Epoxy Fibers Using Electrospinning. Proceedings of the American Society for Composites 2020— Thirty-Fifth Technical Conference. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/27818
Moheimani, R., & Dalir, H. (2020). Static and Dynamic Solutions of Functionally Graded Micro/Nanobeams under External Loads Using Non-Local Theory. Vibration, 3(2), 51–69. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/27632
Pasharavesh, A., Moheimani, R., & Dalir, H. (2020). Nonlinear energy harvesting from vibratory disc-shaped piezoelectric laminates. Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters, 10(4), 253–261. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/27646
Venugopal, N., Deshpande, A. M., & Dalir, H. (2019). Specific Energy Absorption Improvement of Rear Crash Attenuator by Numerical Modelling for Various Angles of Impact. Proceedings of the American Society for Composites — Thirty-Fourth Technical Conference. https://hdl.handle.net/1805/25377