The SDSS laboratory was founded in 2010 and is directed by Professor Il-Kwon Oh.All members of our lab are working with various research topics, focusing on the smart materials, adaptive structures, intelligent systems, and nanotechnology.Four different researchtopics in the SDSS laboratory are addressed as follows:
Smart materialsI
The research concentrates on the development and applications of smart materials. Research interests in smart materials include (1) piezoelectric actuators, (2) ultrasonic sensors (3) artificial muscles and electro-active polymers and (4) nature-inspired technology. Thermally, magnetically and electrically responsive materials are all functional materials that we are developing.Also, the control techniques of smart material systemshave been studied for realistic applications.
Adaptive structures
The research focuses primarily on design and control methodologies for smart structures, in which the sensing and actuation functionalities of smart materials are integrated with load-bearing structures.Vibration and noise control, shape and position control, energy harvesting, and health monitoring systems can be implemented by using smart functional materials. Also,acoustic and elasticmetamaterials integrated with smart materials have been extensively investigated for underwater sonar applications, acoustic cloaking, acoustic lens, energy harvesting, vibration control, high sensitive sensors and so on.
Intelligent systems
Ocean energy harvesting systems including offshore wind turbines, current power generators, and EAP-based generators have been investigated in this group. Especially, novel current power generatorsbased on self-excited oscillations, which are generated from dynamic instability of fluid-structure interactions, are under development. The design and control strategies should be carefully applied to develop efficient intelligent ocean energy systems. Also, to reduce the air emission from ships, we are developing fuel cell powered unmanned surface vehicles. The unmanned surface vehicles can be used for military services and environmental monitoring.
Nanotechnology
Major focus of nanotechnology in the SDSS laboratory is to synthesize high-quality grapheneflakes and sheets, metal-decorated graphenes and novel 3D carbon nanostructures with several functionalities. Furthermore, we are investigating realistic applications of graphenenanomaterialsin the fields of sensors and actuators, transparent electrodes, supercapacitors, lithium ion batteries, EMI-stealth, nano-composites, and biomedical active devices.
The SDSS research projects have been funded by various industrial and government sponsors including Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), Agency for Defense Development (ADD), National Research Foundation (NRF), Korea Industrial Technology Foundation (KOTEF), National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), Korea Register (KR), Korea Energy Management Corporation (KEMCO),LG Electronics and etc.