Smart Materials Research Group

“Utilising smart materials for the development of innovative engineering designs and solutions”

The Smart Materials Research Group (SMRG) focuses on developing and characterising novel materials. The materials’ unique properties aid the development of innovative engineering designs and solutions applicable to additive manufacturing of composites, shape memory alloys and polymers; functionally graded materials, carbon-nano-tube composites for mechanical and biomedical applications.

Research interests and expertise 

• Biomedical implants and engineered tissues
• In vitro tissue models/ stem cell-material interaction
• Bioreactors as dynamic growth environments
• 3D and 4D printing
• Metal additive manufacturing
• Smart materials and structures
• Bio-inspired design
• Biomedical device design
• Multi-physics multi-scale modelling
• Nonlinear computational solid mechanics
• Green manufacturing
• Soft actuation for medical applications.
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Simulation, modelling and physics of turbulent flows with heat transfer
• Flow control for aerodynamic applications
• Advanced materials for cost-effective carbon capture and utilization
• Blue hydrogen production from low-cost wastes
• Biomass processing technologies and integration with CCS (BECCS)

Services

For information about the Smart Materials Research Group, or about research collaborations, please contact the research group leader Dr Yvonne Reinwald or relevant members of staff.

Related research labs

• 4D Materials and Printing laboratory

• Nottingham University Hospital, Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
• Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
• Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
• University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Cyprus University of Technology
• Medical Physics Group at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN-LNS), Italy
• University of Leeds, United Kingdom
• The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), United Kingdom
• Attenborough Medical
• Fluids research group, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
• Princeton University, Princeton, USA
• Graduate Aerospace Laboratories (GALCIT), Caltech, USA
• University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
• University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, United Kingdom

• Dr. Yvonne Reinwald
• Dr. Mahdi Bodaghi
• Dr. Ahmad Serjouei
• Dr. Amirreza Rouhi
• Dr. Wenbin Zhang

1. B.I. Yanny Marliana, M.N. Muhammad Syazwan, M.N. Ahmad-Fauzi, W. Balestri, Y. Reinwald. Influence of ternary divalent cations (Mg2+, Co2+, Sr2+) substitution on the physicochemical, mechanical and biological properties of carbonated hydroxyapatite scaffolds. J Aust Ceram Soc 57, 1499–1510 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41779-021-00640-y
2. Muhammad Syazwan M.N, Ahmad-Fauzi M.N, Wendy Balestri, Y. Reinwald, Yanny Marliana B.I. Effectiveness of Various Sintering Aids on the Densification and In Vitro Properties of Carbonated Hydroxyapatite Porous Scaffolds Produced by Foam Replication Technique. Materials Today Communication. Volume 27, June 2021, 102395 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2021.102395
3. Ismail Y.M.B., Y. Reinwald (2020) Hybrid Composite for Orthopedic Applications. In: Siddiquee S., Gan Jet Hong M., Mizanur Rahman M. (eds) Composite Materials: Applications in Engineering, Biomedicine and Food Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45489-0_14
4. Andrea Domingues Goncalves, Wendy Balestri and Y. Reinwald (2020). Biomedical Implants for Regenerative Therapies. IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.91295.
5. Wendy Balestri, Rob Morris, John A. Hunt, Y. Reinwald. Current advances on the regeneration of musculoskeletal interfaces. Tissue Eng Part B Rev 2020 Nov 11. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEB.2020.0112. Online ahead of print.
6. Jarrah, H.R., Zolfagharian, A. and Bodaghi, M., 2022. Finite element modeling of shape memory polyurethane foams for treatment of cerebral aneurysms. Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, pp.1-17.
7. Rostam-Alilou, A.A., Jafari, H., Zolfagharian, A., Serjouei, A. and Bodaghi, M., 2022. Experimentally validation and vibro-acoustic modeling of 3D bio-printed grafts for potential use in human tympanic membrane regeneration. Bioprinting, p.e00186.
8. Malekmohammadi, S., Sedghi Aminabad, N., Sabzi, A., Zarebkohan, A., Razavi, M., Vosough, M., Bodaghi, M. and Maleki, H., 2021. Smart and Biomimetic 3D and 4D Printed Composite Hydrogels: Opportunities for Different Biomedical Applications. Biomedicines, 9(11), p.1537.
9. Shirzad, M., Zolfagharian, A., Matbouei, A. and Bodaghi, M., 2021. Design, evaluation, and optimization of 3D printed truss scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 120, p.104594.
10. Ghavidelnia, N., Bodaghi, M. and Hedayati, R., 2021. Femur auxetic meta-implants with tuned micromotion distribution. Materials, 14(1), p.114.
11. Jarrah, H.R., Zolfagharian, A., Hedayati, R., Serjouei, A. and Bodaghi, M., 2021, March. Nonlinear finite element modelling of thermo-visco-plastic styrene and polyurethane shape memory polymer foams. In Actuators (Vol. 10, No. 3, p. 46). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.
12. Lalegani Dezaki, M., Ariffin, M.K.A.M., Serjouei, A., Zolfagharian, A., Hatami, S. and Bodaghi, M., 2021. Influence of Infill Patterns Generated by CAD and FDM 3D Printer on Surface Roughness and Tensile Strength Properties. Applied Sciences, 11(16), p.7272.
13. Marusic I., Chandran D., Rouhi A., Fu M. K., Wine D., Holloway B., Chung D. and Smits A. J., 2021, "An energy-efficient pathway to turbulent drag reduction", Nature Communications., Vol. 12, 5805.
14. Rouhi A., Lohse D., Marusic I., Sun C. and Chung D., 2021, Coriolis effect on centrifugal buoyancy-driven convection in a thin cylindrical shell, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol 910, A32.
15. Geurts B., Rouhi A. and Piomelli U., 2021, Turbulent Backward-Facing Step Flow: Reliability Assessment of Large-Eddy Simulation Using ILSA, Advances in Critical Flow Dynamics Involving Moving/Deformable Structures with Design Applications, Springer Nature
16. Samie M., Baars W., Rouhi A., Schlatter P., Örlü R., Marusic I. and Hutchins N., 2020 Near wall coherence in wall-bounded flows and implications for flow control, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol 86, 108683.
17. Min, C., Yang, X., He, J., Wang, K., Xie, L., Onwude, D., Zhang, W. & Wu, H., Experimental investigation on heat recovery from flue gas using falling film method, 13 Jan 2021, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Thermal Science and Engineering Progress.
18. Zhang, W., Chenggong, S., Snape, C. E., Sun, X. & Liu, H., Cyclic performance evaluation of a polyethylenimine / silica adsorbent with steam regeneration using simulated NGCC flue gas and actual flue gas of a gas-fired boiler in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor, 4 Feb 2020, In: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. 95, 102975.

Current PhD Projects:

• Wendy Balestri, PGR: “Development of novel triphasic 3D in vitro Model for tissue interphase regeneration”. (Supervisors: Y Reinwald, J Hunt, R Morris)
• Ruhani Khanna, PGR: “Evaluation of cell specific biological damage due to ionising radiation: from Monte Carlo simulations to three-dimensional in vitro tissue models” (Supervisors: A Serjouei, Y Reinwald, P Cirrone)
• Victor Adejo Okenyi, PGR: “Offshore Structures Health Monitoring and Prediction of Corrosion Fatigue Damage” (Supervisors: S Afazov, M Bodaghi, N Mansfield, P Siegkas)
• Mohammadreza Lalegani Dezaki, PGR: “4D Design and Printing of Biomimetic Orthoses and Prostheses” (Supervisors: M Bodaghi, A Serjouei, S Afazov)

Current Undergraduate Projects:

• Using PEEK for custom cranial-and maxillofacial implants
• Mapping of mechanical properties of 3D tissue interphase models
• Inhibition of bone cancer cells through smart materials
• The effect of nutrition on musculoskeletal regeneration
• 3D printed biomaterial implants for vascularised bone formation
• Aerodynamic study of cyclists at different positions