Applied and fundamental studies of vibrating 2D membranes

This thesis encompasses both applied and fundamental studies of suspended van der Waals materials. Chapters 1 and 2 give an introduction to the field of 2D materials and some of the critical methods which facilitate the study of the suspended structures. In Chapters 3 and 4 we focus on the applications of graphene in barometric pressure sensors...

Design and testing of piezoelectric flight control actuators for hard-launch munitions

A new technique is presented for designing actuators for guided hard-launch adaptive munitions by using actuator and substrate strain limits, static analysis methods and matching the local actuator strains along its length by varying the width. This Load-Matched design technique leads to an exponential area distribution as a function of length...