GROUP NEWS

PRESS/ONLINE ARTICLES

July 2023: NY times article on the recent Oceangate submersible incident: [which quotes Prof. Kirane]
Oct 2020 Article on biaxial flexural failure in woven composites in Advances In Engineering
Oct 2020 SBU News article about the ASME Orr Early Career Award
August 2019 TBR News Media Article
July 2019 SBU News Article about the ARO YIP award
July 2019 CEAS News Article about the ARO YIP award 2020

JOURNAL COVERS

GROUP NEWS

2026

Aug 26: Sajjid Hasan Asif was selected to receive the NSF travel award to present his research at the American Society for Composites (ASC) 41st Annual Technical Conference, to be held September 28 – 30, 2026, in Madison, WI. He will present his research entitled "Strain-rate and loading-mode effects on damage localization in woven composites: A microplane triad investigation." Congratulations!
July 23, Sanket Wardhekar successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled "Multiaxial Fracture Behavior of Brittle Polymers: Characterization and Microplane Constitutive Modeling" Heartiest congratulations!!
June 5, Our paper titled “Rate-dependent microplane triad model for high strain rate behavior of woven composites” (co-authors: Sajjid Hasan Asif and Taufiq Abdullah) was published in the International Journal of Solids and Structures!
May 15, Our paper titled “Mesh and internal length sensitivity of the phase field model for quasi-static and dynamic fracture, comparison with the crack band model” (collaboration with Prof. Reza Abedi) was published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics!
May 8, Our paper titled “Size Effect Based Fracture Toughness Characterization of Epoxy Resin to Resolve Small-Scale Yielding Ambiguity” (lead author Sanket Wardhekar) was published in Polymer Engineering and Science!
April 17: Several graduate students from our group presented at the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Research Poster Symposium. Sajjid Hasan Asif‘s poster on “Rate dependent microplane triad model for high strain rate behavior of woven composites” was selected as honorable mention! Big congratulations!
April 1: John Park was selected to receive the GAANN fellowship for FY 2026-27! Heartiest congratulations to John!
Feb 12: Wanru Miao and Sanket Wardhekar were both selected to received the Richard S. Lee Research Excellence Award for Graduate Students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, for Academic and Research Excellence! Big congratulations!! They both will receive a certificate and honorarium for their achievements.

2025

Dec 5, Our paper titled “Kink band fracture energy of 2D woven composites with 3D mixed-mode corrections and size effect analysis” (lead author Wanru Miao ) was published in Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics!
Oct 10, Our paper titled “Size effect in the J-R curves for the nonlinear shear failure of woven composites” (co-authors John Park, Malik John) was published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics!
Sept 12: John Li and Daniel Joung were selected for the SBU NASA NY Space Grant research award for their ongoing research!
July 31: Thomas Piccolo successfully defended his MS thesis titled “Finite Element Modeling of Abdominal Cavity to Enable Improved Hernia Treatments“ Congratulations!
May 15: Our paper titled “High speed imaging based measurement of dynamic crack speed in PDMS” (Lead author: Devlin Donnelly) was published in Materials Letters!
May 2: Several graduate students from our group presented at the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Research Poster Symposium
April 15: John Li, a rising senior in Mechanical Engineering, has been accepted into the prestigious SUNY Summer Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR) program, and will be conducting research in our lab this summer!
March 6th: Prof. Kirane delivered a seminar titled Continuum Damage Modeling of Dynamic Fracture and Crack-Branching: Model Adequacy, Mesh Objectivity and Localization Limiters. This was part of the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Seminar Series at Northwestern University
Feb 19: Our paper titled “Statistical variability in mechanical properties of amorphous silica predicted by molecular dynamics” (Lead author: Ephraim Bryski) was published in the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids
Jan 24: Our paper titled “Microplane Constitutive Model for Tension–Compression Asymmetry and Pressure-Sensitive Damage in Polymers” (Lead author: Sanket Wardhekar) was published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics

2024

Sep 9: Our paper titled “Experimental investigation of the compressive behavior of epoxy nanocomposites reinforced with straight and helical carbon nanotubes” (co-authors: Soroush Saririan, Michael Borynski, Thomas Londono, Jose Arango) was accepted for publication in Polymer Composites
Sep 7: Izabella Mra was selected for a Stony Brook University NASA NY Space Grant research award for her Fall 2024 research project “The Effect of Specimen Thickness of Composite Failure Behavior”!
August: John Park, Thomas Piccolo, and Racquel Lovelace were awarded the NSF NRT fellowship!
Jul 19: Our paper titled “Modified lap shear test for intralaminar shear failure of fiber reinforced composites” (co-authors: Malik John, John Park) was accepted for publication in Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
Jul 18: Prof. Kirane delivered a seminar titled “Multi-scale Microplane Models for Failure of Polymers and Composites“, at the Tata Research Design and Development Center in Pune India.
May 22: Prof. Kirane delivered a seminar titled “Mechanism-based multi-scale models for damage and failure in heterogeneous materials.” This was part of the Science for Protection of Engineered Environments (SPREE) Seminar Series in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University
May 18: Soroush Saririan received the Richard S. Lee Research Excellence Award for Undergraduate students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, for Research Excellence! Big congratulations!! He will receive a certificate and honorarium for his achievements.
Feb 16: Our paper titled “Ballistic impact modeling of woven composites using the microplane triad model with meso-scale damage mechanisms” (co-authors: Jamshid Ochilov and Taufiq Abdullah) was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Impact Engineering

2023

Dec 23: Our paper titled “Characterizing compressive failure mechanisms and their transitions in woven composites under on and off-axis loading” (lead author: Leana Grotz) was accepted for publication in Composite Structures
Aug 7: Taufiq Abdullah successfully defended his PhD dissertation titled “Regularized continuum damage models for dynamic fracture of brittle materials and woven composites“
Aug 4: Jamshid Ochilov successfully defended his MS thesis titled “Impact Damage Modeling of Woven Composite Laminates“
May 19: Leana Grotz received the Richard S. Lee Research Excellence Award for Graduate Students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, for Academic and Research Excellence! Big congratulations!! She will receive a certificate and honorarium for her achievements.
May 1: Leana Grotz successfully defended her MS thesis titled “Experimental Characterization of Failure Behavior of Woven Composites under On-axis and Off-axis Compression“
Mar 31: Several lab members presented posters at the Mechanical Engineering Graduate Research Symposium. Jamshid Ochilov’s poster on “Microplane Triad Model for Ballistic Impact of Woven Composites” was selected as honorable mention!
Mar 8: Our paper titled “Mesh objectivity in dynamic fracture analyses with rate dependent continuum damage models” (lead author: Taufiq Abdullah) has been published in Mechanics of Materials
Jan 29: Our paper titled “Type I size effect and failure behavior of woven composites under biaxial flexure” (primary author: Felix Liu) has been published in Composites Part B: Engineering
Jan 12: Our paper titled “Dynamic crack penetration vs. deflection at material interfaces and the role of rate dependent strength and toughness” (co-authors: Yu-Foong Lam and Taufiq Abdullah) has been published in the Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids

2022

Sep 27: Our paper titled “Experimental dataset on the in-plane tensile, shear, and compressive properties of a carbon-epoxy twill woven composite” (co-authors: Felix Liu, Leana Grotz, Yanyan Cui) has been published in Data in Brief. The experimental dataset can also be downloaded here
Sep 23: Our paper titled “Crack face friction effects in the strength scaling of composites failing by kinked shear cracks under transverse compression” (primary author: Jing Xue) has been published in Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics
May 13: Dr. Jing Xue, was selected to receive the Richard S.L. Research Excellence Award from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stony Brook University, for Academic and Research Excellence! Big congratulations!! Jing will receive a certificate and honorarium for her achievements.
May 7: Our paper titled “Strain rate dependence of the mesh objectivity in dynamic fracture analyses with the crack band model” (primary author: Taufiq Abdullah) has been published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics
April 14: Our paper titled “Cylindrical microplane model for compressive kink band failures and combined friction/inelasticity in fiber composites II: Analyses” (primary author: Jing Xue) has been published in Composite Structures
Apr 8: Prof. Kirane gave a talk titled “Criterion for dynamic crack penetration vs. deflection at material interfaces” (co-authors: Yu-Foong Lam, Taufiq Abdullah) at the 2022 Virtual Mach conference.
Apr 7: Prof. Kirane organized a mini-symposium titled “Dynamic Fracture of Heterogeneous Composites” (jointly with JHU doctoral candidate Sakshi Braroo) at the 2022 Virtual Mach conference
March 31: Leana Grotz presented a poster at the WISE Undergraduate Research Event, entitled “Compressive properties of Woven Carbon Fiber Composites”
March 3: Our paper titled “Cylindrical microplane model for compressive kink band failures and combined friction/inelasticity in fiber composites I: Formulation” (primary author: Jing Xue) has been published in Composite Structures

2021

Dec 9: Garret Smith successfully defended his MS thesis titled “Microplane Constitutive Model for the Damage Behavior of Polymers and Extension to their Nanocomposites” Heartiest congratulations to Garret!
Dec 3: Jing Xue successfully defended her PhD dissertation titled “Multiscale Constitutive Modeling of Compressive Fracture and Size Effect in Composite Materials” Heartiest congratulations to Jing, the first doctoral student to graduate from the Materials and Mechanics Lab!!
Dec 1: Ephraim Bryski was featured as the URECA researcher of the month. See full interview here, which was also tweeted by President McKinnis!! Kudos Ephraim!!
Nov 17: Prof. Kirane received the 2022 Journal of Applied Mechanics best paper award for the article “Fracture and energetic strength scaling of soft, brittle and weakly nonlinear elastomers” More info here and here
Oct 22: Prof. Kirane was selected to receive the CEAS award for excellence in teaching, announced during the State of the College Address. More info here and here
Aug 5: Yufoong Lam successfully defended his MS thesis titled “Penetration and branching of dynamic cracks at material interfaces analyzed via a strain rate dependent continuum damage model” Heartiest congratulations to Yu Foong!
June 2: Prof Kirane presented gave a talk titled “Flaw Size Sensitivity of Amorphous Silica Nanostructures” (co-authored with John Park) at the 2021 Virtual Biot Bazant conference. Kudos!
May 26: Prof. Kirane co-organized a mini-symposium titled “Modeling and Characterization of Brittle and Quasibrittle Fracture” at the 2021 Virtual ASCE EMI conference, along with Profs. Marco Salviato, Jia-liang Le and Ravindra Duddu
May 26: Taufiq Abdullah presented his research work titled “Localization limiters and modeling of dynamic fracture in brittle and quasibrittle materials” at the 2021 Virtual ASCE EMI conference. Kudos!
May 26: Jing Xue presented her research work titled “Structural size effects in the transverse compressive strength of Unidirectional Fiber Composite Laminates” at the 2021 Virtual ASCE EMI conference. Kudos!
May 11: Our paper titled “Homogenization of the Mooney-Rivlin coefficients of graphene based soft sandwich nanocomposites” (primary author: Mersim Redzematovic) has been accepted for publication at Mechanics of Soft Materials
May 3: Our paper entitled titled “Size effect in the transverse compressive strength of composites analyzed by the fixed crack model” (primary author: Dr Jing Xue) has been accepted for publication at ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics
Apr 21: Our paper titled “Continuum damage modeling of dynamic crack velocity, branching, and energy dissipation in brittle materials” (primary author Taufiq Abdullah) has been published in the International Journal of Fracture
Apr 20: The US patent titled “K. Kirane, S. Gosavi, P. F. Sanz, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co, 2021, Performing A Well Operation Based Upon A Minimum In-Situ Stress Determination” (U.S. Patent No. 10,982,536), was granted!
Apr 7: Yufoong Lam presented his research work titled “Penetration and branching of dynamic cracks at material interfaces analyzed via a strain rate dependent continuum damage model” at the 2021 Virtual Mach conference. Kudos!
Apr 7: Prof. Kirane organized a mini-symposium titled “Characterization and Modeling of Dynamic Fracture in Composites” at the 2021 Virtual Mach conference
March 31: Jing Xue and Taufiq Abdullah received the NSF NRT Travel and Professional Development Award to present their research at the upcoming ASCE EMI conference. Congratulations to both!!
March 10: Our paper titled “Transitional flaw size sensitivity of amorphous silica nanostructures analyzed by ReaxFF/SiO based molecular dynamics” (primary author: John Park) has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Applied Physics. It was also selected to be featured on the cover page of the May 7th 2021 issue!
Jan 19 : Our paper titled “Effect of the shape of the softening damage law on the predicted tensile fracturing and energy dissipation in textile composites” (primary author: Jing Xue) has been published in the International Journal of Damage Mechanics

2020

Nov 17 2020: Prof. Kirane gave a pre-recorded video presentation at the virtual ASME IMECE 2020. The talk was titled “Continuum scale modeling of dynamic crack propagation and branching in brittle materials” (co-authored with Taufiq Abdullah)
Sept 29, 30 2020: Prof. Kirane gave a pre-recorded video presentation at the Society of Engineering Sciences Technical Meeting (held online). The talk was titled “Continuum scale modeling of dynamic crack propagation and branching in brittle materials” (co-authored with Taufiq Abdullah)
Sept 16th: Prof. Kirane gave a talk at the 35th Annual Technical Conference of the American Society for Composites. The talk was titled “Effect Of The Shape Of The Softening Damage Law On The Predicted Fracturing Behavior of Composites“ (co-authored with Jing Xue)
Sept 11th : Our paper titled “Induced anisotropy in the fracturing behavior of 3D printed parts analyzed by the size effect method” (primary author: Anar Nurizada) has been published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics
Sept 7th 2020: Prof. Kirane was selected to receive the ORR Early Career Award, given by the Orr family through the Materials Division of ASME. See more details here. News articles on various SBU websites can be found here and here
Aug 17th: Prof. Kirane received a new research grant from DOD ONR for the project titled “Analysis of Size Effects in Compressive Failure of Fabric Composites“
Aug 7th: John Park successfully defended his MS thesis titled “A Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Quasibrittle Fracture in Nanoscale Amorphous Silica Structures” Heartiest congratulations to John!
July 31st: Mersim Redzematovic successfully defended his MS thesis titled “Micromechanics of the Mooney-Rivlin constants for soft polymer graphene sandwich nanocomposites” Heartiest congratulations to Mersim!
May 1st: Jing Xue successfully completed her PhD proposal titled “Multiscale Constitutive Modeling of Compressive Fracture and Size Effect in Composite Materials” Heartiest congratulations to Jing!
January 14th : Our paper titled “Fracture and energetic strength scaling of soft, brittle and weakly nonlinear elastomers” (co-authored by : Kevin Gonzalez, Jing Xue, Andy Chu) has been published in the Journal of Applied Mechanics.
January 1st : Our paper titled “Biaxial flexural failure of woven composite plates investigated by the ring on ring bending test” (authors: has been published in Thin-Walled Structures.

2019

December 25th: Research work by Jose Menjivar on “Surfactant assisted dispersion of MWCNT’s in epoxy nanocomposites and adhesion with Aluminum” has been published in Polymer Testing.
November 19th: Prof. Kirane gave a talk at the STEM seminar series hosted by SBU Libraries, on “Predicting Dynamic Fracture of Fiber Composites to Enable Protection of Army Personnel and Infrastructure“
November 15th: Research work by Eric Yurman on “Experimental data on electrical properties of epoxy/carbon composites used as structural capacitance” has been published in Data in Brief.
November 12th: Jing Xue gave an exciting talk at the ASME IMECE 2019 in Salt Lake City on “Structural size effects in the transverse compressive strength of unidirectional fiber composite laminates” (co-authored with Prof. Kirane). Kudos!
November 11th: Prof. Kirane gave a talk at the Young Medalist Symposium at the ASME IMECE 2019 in Salt Lake City “Scaling of structural strength in soft elastomers and the relation to fracture energy and process zone size” (co-authored with Kevin Gonzalez and Jing Xue)
Aug: Jing Xue received the Haythornthwaite travel award from the Applied Mechanics Division of ASME, to attend and present at the ASME IMECE 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her talk will be titled “Structural size effects in the transverse compressive strength of unidirectional fiber composite laminates.” Heartiest congratulations to Jing!
June: Prof. Kirane gave a talk at the Engineering Mechanics Institute conference at Caltech on “Strength size effect and post-peak softening in woven composites analyzed by cohesive zone and crack band models” (co-authored with Jing Xue)
May 25: Eric Yurman graduated with an MS. Congratulations to Eric!
May 15: Prof. Kirane received DOD ARO’s Young Investigator award for the project titled “Damage mechanism-based multiscale model for dynamic failure of textile composites“. For more details and news articles click here ,here and here
May 8: Jing Xue presented a poster at the Annual Graduate Research Symposium, entitled “Mechanism based damage model for compression induced failures in unidirectional fiber composites“
March 16: Our paper titled “Strength size effect and post-peak softening in textile composites analyzed by cohesive zone and crack band models” (primary author: Jing Xue) has been published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics.
Feb 13: Prof. Kirane received SBU’s Germination Space Funding Award jointly with Prof. Eisaman, Prof. Grubbs and Prof. Park for the project ““Composite Materials for Neural Interfaces with Emergent Functionality”

2017-2018

December: Daniel Deland and Kevin Gonzalez graduated with an MS. Congratulations!
Nov 13: Prof. Kirane received the Haythornthwaite Young Investigator award from the Applied Mechanics Division of ASME
Aug 3: Jose Menjivar presented a poster at the NASA LSAMP undergraduate research poster symposium at SBU, entitled “The effect of adding carbon nanotubes on the fracturing behavior of composites“
July 26: Prof. Kirane gave a talk at the World Congress of Computational Mechanics in New York entitled “Strain-rate Dependent Microplane Constitutive Model for Dynamic Fracturing and Comminution of Concrete during Projectile Impact“
May: Jing Xue presented a poster at the Annual Graduate Research Symposium, entitled “Numerical analysis of fracturing and strength scaling of woven composites“

December 2017: Andy Chu and Zongyan Zhang graduated with an MS. Congratulations!