AFOSR Awards $1.2 Million to Prof. Mardanpour for Development and Validation of Aeroelastic Constructal Theory
The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) has granted Professor Mardanpour a significant $1.2 million award to further his work in applying constructal theory to the aeroelastic design of future aircraft. This initiative brings Professor Mardanpour into collaboration with Professor Adrian Bejan from Duke University, the discoverer of the constructal law, and researchers from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). This research is inspired by recent preliminary discoveries offering insights into the evolutionary design of flying wing aircraft. It explores the complex interplay between stress flows, aeroelastic stability, and overall aircraft performance. Professor Mardanpour's research stands to significantly impact the aeroelastic design of multi-physics, multi-scale structures in future aircraft. It aims to bridge current knowledge gaps by harmonizing theoretical, computational, and experimental methodologies with the ‘physics of design’, which is primarily focused on the configuration of energy flows. Grounded in constructal law, this research emphasizes evolutionary design principles, examining ways to scale up and add complexity to aircraft designs. The ability to foresee evolutionary trajectories is particularly crucial in the realm of hypersonic vehicles and space travel, areas where no pre-existing natural designs are available for human adaptation. The expected results are aircraft designs that are more stable, sustainable, and cost-efficient, potentially transforming the future of aviation.
Prof. Mardanpour is Appointed to the Collaborative Hypersonic And Missile Defense Faculty Research Program at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT)
Prof. Mardanpour was selected for appointment to the Research Participation Program at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). This appointment is awarded to him in recognition of his past achievements, academic and career objectives, and interest in the United States Air Force mission. In this research, Prof. Mardanpour's long-term goal is to establish a new fundamental domain in science: the evolutionary design of hypersonic vehicles. This development would be possible through the freedom to pursue new ideas without constraints and fear of the establishment. The key is the freedom to question authority, proceed against method (in this case, against reductionism), and discover that the sciences are one science with immense predictive power. His research empowers him to predict the configuration in nature for which there exist no natural designs that human can mimic; hence, the result of this research specifically benefit the design fundamentals for ‘prediction of the configuration’ of hypersonic vehicles. It benefits directly the U.S. national security and surveillance missions by enhancing the design technology for future unmanned aircraft, improves the aeroelastic and aerodynamic performance, energy efficiency of flight, and strengthens the technological lead of the United States in designing advanced manned and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Dr. Mojtaba Moshtaghzadeh Wins the Best Graduate Student Award of 2023 in the FIU College of Engineering and Computing
FIU College of Engineering and Computing recognizes Dr. Mojtaba Moshtaghzadeh as the winner of 2023 Best CEC Graduate Student. Congratulations to Dr. Moshtaghzadeh!
Dr. Mojtaba Moshtaghzadeh Successfully Defended His Ph.D. Thesis
Under the supervision of Prof. Pezhman Mardanpour, on March 13, 2023, Dr. Mojtaba Moshtaghzadeh successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis. His Thesis is entitled "Mechanical Analysis and Design of a Morphing Mechanism for Flexible Foldable Reconfigurable Origami Structure." In January 2019, Mr. Moshtaghzadeh joined Prof. Mardanpour's research team as his research assistant and became a Ph.D. Candidate in May 2020 after passing his qualifying exam. During his candidacy, he worked on projects funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF.) His record of publication in a relatively short period in Solid Mechanics and aeroelasticity is considerable. Since January 2019, he has published 17 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences: Seven journal papers in prestigious venues such as the Journal of Engineering Structures, Journal of Thin-Walled Structures, AIAA Journal, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G: Journal of Aerospace Engineering, and ASME. He currently has one under-review journal paper in the Mechanics Research Communications journal. In addition, he has published ten conference papers at the AIAA-SciTech and ASME-IMECE conferences.
Dr. Moshtaghzadeh’s Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Prof. Pezhman Mardanpour (Major Advisor), Profs. Cesar Levy, Ibrahim Tansel, and Armin Mehrabi (Committee Members).
Prof. Mardanpour and his team attended and presented at the AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum and Exhibition in Washington, D.C.
In this proceeding they presented their recent work on "Constitutive and geometric effects on nonlinear aeroelastic trim and stability of the predator aircraft" and "Optimized Kresling origami-inspired structures using Artificial Neural Network and Monte Carlo Method."
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) supports Prof. Mardanpour’s research project entitled “3D Digital Image Correlation and Dynamic Point Tracking Systems for Experimental Verification of the Constructal Theory for Aeroelastic Design of Aircraft.”
At a fundamental level, Prof. Mardanpour gaol is to develop a platform to verify his constructal theory for designing multi-scale structures he can use to increase the performance, stability, and safety of future aircraft. September 2022.
Prof. Mardanpour and his team attended and presented at the AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum and Exhibition in Chicago.
From left to right: Dr. R. Mousavi, Dr. P. Mardanpour, Mr. M. Moshtaghzadeh, June 2022, Chicago, IL.
Dr. Izadpanahi Successfully Defended His Ph.D. Thesis
Under supervision of Prof. Pezhman Mardanpour, Dr. Ehsan Izadpanahi successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on February 13, 2020. Dr. Izadpanahi joined Prof. Mardanpour’s team on January of 2016 and became a PhD candidate in 2017. During his candidacy, he worked on projects funded by U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and U.S. Department of Transportation (USDoT). His Ph.D. thesis entitled “Constructal Design and Aeroelastic Stability of HALE Aircraft” led to 15 peer-reviewed journal papers in prestigious journals such as American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Journal, Journal of Aircraft, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Journal of Applied Mathematical Modelling, Journal of computers and Fluids, and International Journal of Thermal Science. Among his articles, the “Constructal Design of Aircraft: Flow of Stresses and Aeroelastic Stability” published by AIAA Journal presents an influential stepping-stone fundamental science in the field of design of aerospace vehicles. He also co-authored one book chapter and 7 conference proceedings.
Dr. Izadpahani’s Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Prof. Pezhman Mardanpour (Major Advisor), Profs. Cesar Levy, Charlie Lin, Sakhrat Khizroev, Ibrahim Tansel (Committee Members).
The National Science Foundation sponsors Professor Mardanpour’s research:
Prof. Mardanpour seeks to answer one of the most fundamental question in nature: Why do trees, rivers, nerves, etc. have curved and twisted branches? The hierarchical (i.e., few large & many small) or so-called tree-like architectures in nature are not straight lines. They evolve with twist and curvature to facilitate what flows through them. The ultimate goal of Prof. Mardanpour's research is to explore and envision this phenomenon "predictively." This analysis and design theory stems from the Constructal Law of nature. It offers a rigorous strategy for meeting the challenge to scale up (i.e., add complexity to) designs that work in simple systems so they can persist over time amid technological evolution. The National Science Foundation awards a grant to support Prof. Mardanpour's project entitled "Constructal Theory for Evolutionary Design of Twisted Paths in Heat Transfer Network."
In the NEWS:
"World Class Renown Researchers gather at FIU for AFRL-FIU Symposium about Physics of Evolutionary Design in Aerospace Systems." Read more.
Prof. Mardanpour organizes AFRL – FIU symposium on Physics of Evolutionary Design in Aerospace Systems
"This meeting brings together researchers with the latest ideas on the frontier of aerospace systems design. The objective is to discuss the physics of evolutionary design and future large-scale trends in air vehicle development. The attendees include representatives from AFOSR, AFRL, NASA, NSF, and academia." Read more.
Prof. Mardanpour talks about “Constructal Design of Flying Wing Aircraft.” in Constructal Law & Second Law Conference in Porto Alegre, Brazil
"The Constructal Law governs the phenomena of design and evolution in nature. The conference explores the unifying power of the Constructal Law and its applications in all the domains of design generation and evolution, from biology and geophysics to social organization, energy sustainability and security.
The conference also covers the Second Law, and how the Constructal fits in Thermodynamics. The Constructal Law and Second Law are self-standing as first principles. Together, they empower Science much more than the Second Law alone. CLC2019 is the 12th Conference will be hosted by Universidade do Vale do Rio do Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brazil". Read more.
Prof. Mardanpour serves on editorial board of Technobiology Journal.
"Technobiology is a cross-disciplinary journal publishing significant and groundbreaking experimental and theoretical results in the rapidly emerging field of technobiology from the perspective of the enabling and groundbreaking medical technology discoveries and applications". Read more.
Constructal Design of Aircraft: New Fronts of Research Using Constructal Law
"Body-freedom flutter characteristics of flying wing aircraft vary with engine placement. Here, we show why a certain design parameter (engine placement) influences the aeroelastic flight envelope of the aircraft. The approach is based on the constructal law and the principle that a design that avoids stress strangulations provides better access to the flows that inhabit the system. This is in sharp contrast with trial-and-error techniques such as optimization, which means to opt from among different choices, cases, and designs. Under the same flight condition, the flow of stresses through the aircraft wings is investigated for several configurations including those with maximum and minimum flutter speed. The results reveal that when the stresses flow smoothly in the wings the stability of the aircraft improves. On the other hand, in the cases in which the engine location causes stress strangulation, the flutter speed decreases considerably. The most severe stress strangulation corresponds to the aircraft configuration with minimum flutter speed (i.e., engine placement at 20% span behind the reference line. The smoothest flow of stresses happens in the configuration with maximum flutter speed (i.e., engine placement at 80% span forward of the reference line)". Read more.