The Smart Structures and Dynamical Systems Laboratory (SSDSL) is located in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology and led by Prof. Alper Erturk. The overarching research interests of SSDSL are to understand, manipulate, and leverage vibration and wave phenomena in passive and active structures, across geometric scales, disciplines, and applications.

The theoretical and experimental research program of SSDSL aims to address ever-changing high-impact engineering problems at the intersection of smart structures and dynamical systems, with our core strengths in structural dynamics, vibration/acoustics, wave propagation, and piezoelectricity. Such interdisciplinary research problems pertaining to dynamics of smart structures are inherently of multiphysics nature. Examples range from electroelastic structures undergoing vibrations coupled with fluid/acoustic domain to waveguides involving metamaterials or phononic crystals coupled through smart material interfaces with linear/nonlinear electrical circuits for various applications such as energy harvesting, vibration attenuation, and bio-inspired actuation. Current sponsored research topics at SSDSL include nonlinear energy harvesting (e.g. exploiting designed nonlinearities, understanding inherent mechanical and electrical nonlinearities, etc.), bio-inspired actuation and aquatic locomotion using flexible piezoelectric composites, locally resonant passive and active metamaterials for low-frequency vibration attenuation, elastoacoustic wave guiding and harvesting via phononic crystals involving smart materials, wireless acoustic power transfer, ultrasonic communication (data transfer) through metallic barriers, vibration, vibroacoustics and wave propagation in biomechanical systems (e.g. skull-brain dynamics), nondestructive ultrasonic testing of additive manufactured components, among other topics. We invite you to visit our research and publications pages for more information.