Faculty Profiles
Michael Frazier
Associate Professor, MAE
Energy Dissipation, Elastic Wave Propagation, Phononic Materials, Mechanical Metamaterials, Multistable Materials & Structures
The performance of materials that we observe at the macroscale originates from many small-scale processes (e.g., atomic vibrations, phase separation and grain growth, etc.). Many technological applications need extraordinary materials that satisfy exceptional demands, materials often not available in nature or achievable through chemistry. However, by imbuing a material with an internal architecture, which mimics its small-scale counterparts, the macroscale response of the emerging structured material is exquisitely tailorable for original, cross-discipline applications.
Frazier’s research focuses on developing and understanding the dynamic aspects (e.g., dissipation and nonlinearity) of these architected materials with the ultimate goal to enable new, otherwise unattainable, functionalities. Given the additional complexity of theoretical models accounting for nonlinear and multiphysics effects, and the rarity of analytical solutions, investigations of architected materials within these regimes have been sparse, representing a relatively uncharted research frontier. Frazier’s work is primarily theoretical in nature – analytical and numerical – with experimental validation completed in-house and in collaboration with experimental groups.
Capsule Bio:
Michael Frazier joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego in the Fall of 2017 after completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, where his research focused on the dynamics of materials with engineered nonlinear and multistable responses. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado, Boulder in the Fall of 2015 where his research (supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship) investigated the impact and potential functionality of vibrational wave propagation in dissipative architected materials for which he received the 2013 John A. Vise Graduate Student Excellence Award. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Selected Publications:
