Dr. Wang was appointed as a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Swansea University in 2007. He obtained his Ph. D degree (2006) in the area of solid mechanics from the University of Alberta in Canada. Subsequently he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Sydney University, Australia for one year (2006-2007). His current research is focused on (1) mechanics of nanoscale carbon materials, (2) nanocomposite materials and (3) biomechanics of the cytoskeletal filaments in cells. 

Research Interests

Mechanics of Nanoscale Carbon Materials

Nanoscale carbon materials, such as monolayer graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit superior mechanical, electrical and thermal properties and thus are promising for the building blocks of nanocomposites, nanoelectronics and nanodevices. The present study aims to explore the distinctive mechanical behaviors of these carbon materials and examine the coupling effects between their mechanical deformation and electrical properties. Special attention will be paid to the influences of various initial defects, boundary conditions and surrounding fluids on their mechanical behaviors. To achieve these goals multi-scale modeling will be performed based on, e.g., atomistic simulations, the finite element method and continuum mechanics models.

Mechanical Behavior of CNT-based Nanowires

To remove the major obstacles in the application of CNTs considerable effort has been devoted to fabricate a new type of nanowires by coating CNTs with various functional nanocrystals. To facilitate the development of the novel nanomaterials we shall explore their distinctive mechanical responses under various loading conditions by integrating advanced experimental techniques and theoretical modeling tools. The unique elastic properties of selected coating nanocrystals can be measured in, e.g., nanoindentation experiment by using in situ scanning and SPM. Subsequently, theoretical modeling will be carried out to investigate the buckling and vibration behaviors, predict the possible failure modes and examine the effect of the defects (at CNT-coating layer interface) on the mechanical properties of the nanowires.

Biomechanics of Cytoskeleton Components

Cytoskeleton in eukaryotic cells defines the cell shape and serves as a global framework for mechanical and functional integration of the cells. The mechanics of its components, i.e., microtubules (MTs), intermediate and actin filaments, has become a major topic of current research. The major challenge here is lack of efficient and reliable modeling tools. This research project aims to breakthrough this hurdle by developing cost-effective models for cytoskeleton filaments, which will significantly improve the accuracy and enlarge the scope of the research in the specific area. The realistic models for individual MTs and especially, an MT-fluid coupling system have been recently developed, which are efficiently used to study the buckling, free vibration, wave propagation of MTs and account for some unexplained physical phenomena observed in experiments, such as the low buckling resistance of MTs under radial pressure and non-oscillatory bending motion of MTs in a fluid.