Christopher S. Lynch

Professor

Office:	MRDC, Room 4104
Phone:	404.894.6871
Fax:	404.894.0186
E-mail:

Education

• Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1992
• M.S., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1989
• B.S., California State University at Los Angeles, 1984

Research Areas and Descriptors

• Mechanics of Materials; Experimental mechanics and smart materials

Background

Dr. Lynch began at Tech in 1995 as an Assistant Professor. Prior he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Research

Dr. Lynch's research focuses on ferroelectric materials including experimental characterization of constitutive behavior under multiaxial loading, development of internal state variable based constitutive laws, implementation of the constitutive laws for numerical analysis, and experimental investigation of the fracture behavior and reliability of devices manufactured from piezoelectric ceramics. Recently, Dr. Lynch has been working with Northrop Aircraft on a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded project to develop a wing that changes shape in response to applied voltages. This has the potential to improve lift and reduce drag. He has also been working with TRS Ceramics on another DARPA funded project to improve the performance and reliability of piezoelectric actuators. Other research includes preliminary work on acoustic emission in trabecular bone under uniaxial compressive stress, experimental work on laminated matrix composites, and experimental measurements and modeling of piezoelectric materials.

Distinctions

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellow, 2004
• American Society for Engineering Education Young Mechanics Educator of the Year Award, 2000
• National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, 1997-2002
• Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, 1996

Representative Publications

• T. Liu, et al. 2004. Relaxor Ferroelectric PMN-32%PT Crystals Under Stress and Electric Field Loading: I : 3-2 Mode Measurements. Acta Materialia 52(13), 3849-3857.
• W. S. Oates and C.S. Lynch. 2001. Piezoelectric Hydraulic Pump System Dynamic Model. Journal of Intelligent Materials, Systems, and Structures 12(11), 737-744.
• W. Chen and C. S. Lynch. 1998. A Micro-Electro-Mechanical Model for Polarization Switching of Ferroelectric Materials. Acta Materialia 46(15), 5303-5311.
• C. S. Lynch. 1996. The Effect of Uniaxial Stress on the Electro-Mechanical-Response of 8/65/35 PLZT. Acta Materialia 44(10), 4137-4148.
• S. P. Hwang, C. S. Lynch and R. M. McMeeking. 1995. Ferroelectric/Ferroelastic Interactions: A Polarization Switching Model. Acta Materialia 43(5), 2073-2084.