The 6th International Conference on Material Strength and Applied Mechanics
(MSAM 2023)

Abstract: Mechanical metamaterials with negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR), negative thermal expansion (NTE), etc. are of great significance in engineering applications. Majority of the metamaterials reported so far, however, are not materials but structures that are either mechanically weak or heavily reliant on specifically designed architecture/topology. Consequently, their metamaterial performance may be significantly deteriorated or even lost due to local structural deformation or failure under excessive external loading. Developing materials simultaneously possessing metamaterial characteristics and excellent mechanical properties poses a great challenge. This talk reports the latest development of a class of novel graphene origami-enabled mechanical metamaterials with a highly tunable NPR/NTE as well as improved mechanical properties. The research findings open a new avenue to develop graphene reinforced nanocomposite structures that are auxetic, light yet very strong.

Biography: Dr. Yang is a Professor in Engineering in the School of Engineering, RMIT University, Australia. He received PhD in solid mechanics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China in 2002. Prior to joining RMIT as a Lecturer in 2007, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Queensland from 2002-2004, a research fellow then a lecturer at the Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong for 3 years from the end of 2004. His main research interests include advanced composite structures, nanocomposites, structural stability and dynamics, smart structures and control, and nano/micro-mechanics. He is an author of over 390 papers including 295 journal papers which have so far attracted over 20800 Google Scholar citations with h-index 79. He is the Highly Cited Researcher (Cross Field) in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 by Clarivate Analytics and is named by Australian Research Magazine as Global Field Leader in Mechanical Engineering in 2020, Australia’s Research Field Leader in Mechanical Engineering in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 as well as in Structural Engineering in 2021. Prof Yang is the Lead Editor-in-Chief of Engineering Structures (JCR Q1), Associate Editor of Mechanics Based Design of Structures and Machines (JCR Q1), and the editorial board member of Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, Thin-Walled Structures, International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics, Scientific Reports, Materials, and Shock and Vibration, etc.