Our goal is to understand, characterize (experimentally), model and predict high-rate failure mechanisms in a variety of materials and material systems. The latter include metals, gels, tissues, 3D printed materials under marine environments, metamaterials, electrochemical material systems (for multifunctional batteries) and interfacial materials with reversible adhesion.

The Brown solid mechanics group has significant and unique expertise and experience in the experimental as well as physics-based modeling approaches for the said material systems and is well equipped to address the undersea mechanics challenges.

We aim to apply modeling and simulation methods to further the applications of undersea mechanics by:

• Utilizing and further developing modern methods of computational mechanics that present significant advances in the efficiency and accuracy over traditional methodologies and offer avenues to model physical and mechanical phenomena that present significant challenges to the traditional methods.
• Employing a “multiscale philosophy”, where the information from the smallest (i.e., molecular) scales is propagated to the largest (i.e., structure) scales in a consistent fashion and with as little empiricism as possible.
• Making extensive use of experimental validation and new data-driven approaches (e.g., machine learning) at the problem scales of interest to enhance, as much as possible, its predictive power. These are also areas of significant strength at Brown and will enable us to address the undersea mechanics technical challenges in the physics-based and data-driven modeling and simulation areas.

Nature provides countless examples of elegant, efficient design. From movement and sensing in underwater environments as well as the air-water interface, these examples can be characterized, modeled, and adapted into a wide variety of naval applications:

• Seals use their whiskers (“vibrissa”) for flow-sensing, and target localization. We can emulate these functions as well as adapt them, for example, to suppress vortex-induced vibrations.

• Research on different fish fin systems can help us better understand underwater propulsion, maneuverability, and stabilization.

• Aquatic birds can provide insight on how flexibility enables their high-speed diving from the air into the water, while minimizing structural vibration and failure.

Using a holistic approach, MUSE utilizes state-of-the-art experimental techniques to understand both biology and engineering design, coupling measurements with theory and simulation to achieve the understanding of these systems.