Academic divisions

Mechanics, materials and design

This Division covers all aspects of mechanics, materials, and engineering design. The Divisional Head is Professor Robin Langley. The Applied Mechanics research is directed at the many challenging dynamics and vibration problems associated with the design of modern engineering structures and transportation systems whilst the Transport Research Group has been investigating the dynamics of heavy goods vehicles and their road-damaging characteristics using a cross-disciplinary approach in areas from heavy vehicle dynamics, safety and suspension design to weigh-in-motion, vehicle-road interaction, and the failure mechanisms of asphalt pavements and paving materials. Materials Engineering is an inter-disciplinary research centre between the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), Engineering (Materials group), Materials Science, and Physics, and is also based in this Division. The current work in heavy vehicle suspension design is primarily undertaken under the umbrella of the Cambridge Vehicle Dynamics Consortium (CVDC) . This is a group of manufacturers from the heavy truck industry which has joined forces with engineers from Cambridge and Cranfield Universities to develop safer and more 'road-friendly' heavy vehicles.

Our research also includes a vigorous programme of work in Tribology which builds on the long record of work in the field of friction, lubrication and wear carried out in both the Engineering Department and other laboratories in Cambridge, as well as many aspects of Materials research including composite materials, superconductors and metallic foams, powder compaction, adhesive joints and failure analysis. In Engineering Design the focus is on development, validation and dissemination of advanced design methods for technical systems, in particular mechanical systems.

Research Groups

Applied Mechanics

Materials Engineering

Engineering Design

Other links

Faculty

Publications

Research opportunities