• Faculty - Alphabetical Listing
  
• Industrial Advisory Board
  
• Student Advisory Board
  
• "Green" Campus Groups
  
  Since almost 50% of the energy used in homes is for heating and cooling, by moving your thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer, you could save almost 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.

John E. Renaud

Professor
Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
(574) 631-8616
FAX (574) 631-8341
Email: jrenaud@nd.edu
Website

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Maine, 5/82
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 5/92

John E. Renaud’s research interests include large scale numerical optimization, simulation based design under uncertainty, shape and topology optimization, computational biomechanics, parallel computing in numerical optimization and multifunctional material design. His experience includes five years as a manufacturing systems design engineer with the Eastman Kodak Company. He is a National Science Foundation National Young Investigator Award winner. He has served as chair of the ASME Design Automation Technical Committee and as chair of the AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee. Funding in support of his research efforts comes from the National Science Foundation, DARPA, AFRL, NASA, ONR, Wright Laboratories, Honda R&D Americas, General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric CR&D and Engineous Software Incorporated. He has partnered with Dr. Vikas Tomar on an effort to develop a multiscale material design tool for nanocomposite material design. The proposed multiscale simulation tool is based on a combination of hybrid molecular dynamics and Monte-Carlo method (HMC), cohesive finite element method (CFEM), and continuum level modeling for characterizing time-dependent material deformation behavior. HMC is used in place of classical molecular dynamics (MD) since MD cannot be carried out for timescales beyond that of nanoseconds in a realistic simulation time-period. HMC is integrated with CFEM to predict the continuum fracture and creep properties of SiC-Si3N4 nanocomposites with different variations of phase morphologies. The desired properties of focus (design targets) are fracture resistance and creep resistance at temperatures in the vicinity of 1800 K. The materials design approach focuses on obtaining the most suitable sets of morphologies (design variables) to obtain a designated target set of properties by integrating multiscale simulations of the SiC-Si3N4 nanocomposites in an interior-point sequential approximate optimization methodology.

The proposed research will be the first to perform the multiscale modeling of the time-dependent deformation behavior of SiC-Si3N4 nanocomposites. Results obtained by the application of the proposed model to the SiC-Si3N4 nanocomposites will be useful for understanding the applicability of this important class of materials to future fossil energy conversion systems.

Current Energy Related Research Grants

• Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, “Computer Aided Multiscale Design of SiC-Si3N4 Nanoceramic Composites for High-Temperature Structural Applications,” 2/1/07-1/31/10, $300,000.