Public profile
Biography
Dr. Brake's research broadly encompasses the fields of: - Nonlinear Dynamics - Nonlinear Mechanics - Contact/Interface Mechanics/Tribology - Numerical Methods - Vibration - Uncertainty Quantification - Additive Manufacturing - Applied Mathematics for Mechanical Engineering The central question of Dr. Brake’s research is how can we design and predict the response of an assembled structure that contains strong nonlinearities. This research is strongly motivated by the aerospace, defense, and automotive industries. To this end, the focus of Dr. Brake’s recent research has been constitutive modeling for impact dynamics, joint mechanics, the application of additive manufacturing for designing system level assemblies, and the application of a branch of complex number theory (termed hyper dual numbers) to developing parameterized models. Presently, there are multiple positions available in Dr. Brake’s Mechadynamics Laboratory, including (but not limited to) interfacial mechanics, application of complex number theory to mechanical engineering, and additive manufacturing.
Research areas
Structural dynamics, contact mechanics, impact mechanics, fatigue, failure, tribology, numerical methods, uncertainty quantification.