Professor Zehnder was recognized by the College of Engineering as an outstanding teacher and is the winner of the Dennis G. Shepherd Excellence in Teaching Award in 2018.

This paper pulls together our work on blistering, high temperature viscoelastic and viscoplastic deformation, hydrolytic degradation and plasticization to model blistering of moisture saturated PI under rapid heating. See https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1VnJX_rVFH5pm7.   Read More …

Yi Xu successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis on the performance and degradation of polyimides under extreme conditions.  This is the first work to study the combined effects of hydrolytic degradation, Read More …

Our recently published paper, “Moisture Degradation Effects on the Mechanical Properties of HFPE-II-52 Polyimide: Experiments and Modeling”, Experimental Mechanics, 2017, DOI: 10.1007/s11340-017-0281-3 is available on-line at:  http://rdcu.be/qJoG.  We find that Read More …

I have posted a report that updates our work on fracture of notched rods in torsion.  This paper describes additional experiments and computational simulations of the problem.  The paper is Read More …

Yi Xu, Peeyush Bhargava, Alan Zehnder, Time and temperature dependent mechanical behavior of HFPE-II-52 polyimide at high temperature, Mechanics of Materials, Volume 100, September 2016, Pages 86-95, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmat.2016.06.009 Free access Read More …

I’ve posted several animations of simulations of crack growth in 2- and 3D on YouTube. See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLFIUePpdMujR-5PIsRTew

A few corrections to the Fracture Mechanics text have been posted.

We have just been awarded funds that will allow us to recruit an outstanding undergraduate researchers into our hydrogel project.  Looking forward to bringing new talent on board!

We have just completed a new web site, https://zehnder.mae.cornell.edu/