Lorenzo Valdevit

Professor, Materials Science and Engineering and Director, Institute for Design and Manufacturing Innovation UC Irvine

  • Irvine CA

Lorenzo Valdevit’s research is in the general area of mechanics of materials and structures and additive manufacturing

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UC Irvine

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Biography

Prof. Valdevit received his MS degree (Laurea) in Materials Engineering from the University of Trieste, Italy (in 2000) and his PhD degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University (in 2005). He worked as an intern at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and as a post-doctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined the faculty in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, Irvine in 2007. In 2018, he moved his appointment to the newly established Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where is currently a professor. He is serving as the inaugural director of the Institute for Design and Manufacturing Innovation in the School of Engineering.

Prof. Valdevit works in the general area of mechanics of materials, developing analytical, numerical and experimental techniques across multiple length scales. His primary research goal is the optimal design, modeling, fabrication and experimental characterization of metamaterials and structures with unprecedented combinations of properties. Some key research accomplishments have been the development and optimization of multifunctional sandwich panels for thermo-structural applications (including hypersonics), the mechanical characterization, numerical modeling and optimal design of ultralight hollow micro-lattices and 2D and 3D shape-reconfigurable materials, the development of novel topology optimization algorithms for the optimal design of architected materials with complex unit cell designs, and the advancement of novel additive manufacturing processes (in particular two-photon polymerization Direct Laser Writing, Direct Metal Laser Sintering and Cold Spray).

Areas of Expertise

3D Printing & Additive Manufacturing
Architected Materials
Advanced Manufacturing
Materials Science
Metamaterials
Aerospace Engineering

Accomplishments

UCI School of Engineering Outstanding Faculty Service Award

2019

Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award

2012

Orange County Engineering Council Outstanding Engineering Educator Award

2012

Education

Princeton University

PhD

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

2005

Princeton University

MA

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

2002

University of Trieste, Italy

MS

Materials Engineering

2000

Media Appearances

New Crush-Resistant Metamaterials can Prevent Failure of Structures

AZO Materials  online

2021-03-12

According to Valdevit, who is also a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine, tensegrity metamaterials have an unparalleled combination of strength, deformability, extreme energy absorption and failure resistance, superseding all other kinds of advanced lightweight architectures.

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Crushing It

The UCSB Current  online

2020-04-28

The scientists from the architected materials laboratory of UC Irvine professor Lorenzo Valdevit first fabricated a nanoscale closed-cell carbon plate architecture in the cubic+octet design. Fabrication in the nanoscale (the plates were about 160 nanometers or 1/400th the thickness of a human hair) was the method of choice because it avoids the kind of mechanical defects that come with material in larger scales, allowing the researchers to create perfect crystals.

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New carbon nanostructure is stronger than diamonds

Design Products & Applications  online

2020-04-20

Members of the architected materials laboratory of Lorenzo Valdevit, UCI Professor of Materials Science & Engineering as well as Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, verified their findings using a scanning electron microscope and other technologies provided by the Irvine Materials Research Institute.

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Patents

Electronic components on trenched substrates and method of forming same

US8659119B2

An electronic module including a substrate having at least one structure that reduces stress flow through the substrate, wherein the structure comprises at least one trench in a surface of the substrate.

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Elliptic c4 with optimal orientation for enhanced reliability in electronic packages

US20110049711A1

An arrangement for the equipping of electronic packages with elliptical C4 connects possessing optimal orientation for enhanced reliability. Furthermore, disclosed is a method providing elliptical C4 connects which possesses optimal orientation for enhanced reliability, as implemented in connection with their installation in electronic packages.

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Self calibrating micro-fabricated load cells

US9228916B2

Self calibrating micro-fabricated load cells are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a self calibrating load cell comprises a resonant double ended tuning fork force sensor and a phase locked loop circuit for detection of frequency changes upon external load application to the resonant double ended tuning fork force sensor.

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Articles

Enhanced adhesion in two-photon polymerization direct laser writing

AIP Advances

AG Izard, EP Garcia, M Dixon, EO Potma, T Baldacchini, L Valdevit

2020

We have quantified the adhesion forces between two-photon polymerization direct laser writing (TPP-DLW) microstructures and glass surfaces with and without an adhesion promoter. Glass surfaces treated with an acryloxy-silane agent produce adhesion forces that are almost three times larger than the forces observed with pristine glass surfaces. Determination of the substrates’ surface free energies suggests that the observed adhesion enhancement is chemical in its nature, implying that covalent bonds are formed between the polymer and the glass by means of the silane agent. The importance of this finding is demonstrated in the successful production of glassy carbon microstructures using TPP-DLW, followed by pyrolysis.

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Plate-nanolattices at the theoretical limit of stiffness and strength

Nature Communications

Cameron Crook, Jens Bauer, Anna Guell Izard, Cristine Santos de Oliveira, Juliana Martins de Souza e Silva, Jonathan B. Berger & Lorenzo Valdevit

2020

Though beam-based lattices have dominated mechanical metamaterials for the past two decades, low structural efficiency limits their performance to fractions of the Hashin-Shtrikman and Suquet upper bounds, i.e. the theoretical stiffness and strength limits of any isotropic cellular topology, respectively. While plate-based designs are predicted to reach the upper bounds, experimental verification has remained elusive due to significant manufacturing challenges.

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A versatile numerical approach for calculating the fracture toughness and R-curves of cellular materials

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

Meng-Ting Hsieh, Vikram S Deshpande, Lorenzo Valdevit

2020

We develop a numerical methodology for the calculation of mode-I R-curves of brittle and elastoplastic lattice materials, and unveil the impact of lattice topology, relative density and constituent material behavior on the toughening response of 2D isotropic lattices. The approach is based on finite element calculations of the J-integral on a single-edge-notch-bend (SENB) specimen, with individual bars modeled as beams having a linear elastic or a power-law elasto-plastic constitutive behavior and a maximum strain-based damage model.

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