Fuh-Gwo Yuan

Education

• Ph.D., Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, 1986
• M.S., Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, 1981
• B.S., Engineering Science, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan, 1977

Work Experience

• Samuel P. Langley Professor, National Institute of Aerospace, October 2011 – Present
• Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, August 2011 – Present
• Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, August 1994 – August 2001
• Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, August 1989 – August 1994
• Associate Director, NSF/I/UCRC Center for Integration of Composites into Infrastructure (CICI), June 2011 – Present
• Visiting Fellow, Magdalen College, University of Oxford, April – August 2008
• Distinguished Visiting Professor, Southeast University, Nanjing China, January 2008
• Distinguished Visiting Professor, School of Advanced Urban Systems Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, 2005-2007
• Visiting Professor, School of Aeronautics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China, 2005-2007
• Visiting Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 2002-2004
• Director, Mars Mission Research Center, North Carolina State University, 2001-2004
• Visiting Scientist, Materials Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, June –July 1992 & May-July 1991
• Summer Faculty Fellow, NASA Langley Research Center, October 1986-June 1989
• Research Engineer and Post Doctoral Fellow, National Center for Composite Materials Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests

• Structural Health Monitoring,
• Damage Tolerance of Composite Structures,
• Smart Materials and Structures,
• Fracture and Life Prediction of Advanced Materials and Structures,
• Wireless Sensing,
• Energy Harvesting,
• Micro/Nano Sensors, and
• Distributed On-Board Signal Processing applied toward the Diagnosis and Prognosis of Critical Structures.

Philosophy

“Teaching at a research university requires a conscious effort to balance obligation to the student (in particular the undergraduate) with the time constraints imposed by an ever-increasing demand in research endeavors. Yet, by instilling the current cutting-edge research into the classroom, one can provide not only a unique opportunity to make learning more interesting and motivating to the students, but also inspire them to pursue advanced studies in MS and Ph.D. programs. I strongly feel that an active role in research is indispensable for effective teaching at the graduate level and for supervision of doctoral students. Integration of teaching and research in the classroom also adds enthusiasm and motivation to learning at the undergraduate level.

This philosophy has been shaped by my experience starting from my education at the University of Illinois, my work experience at Boeing, NASA, and at the Air Force Research Laboratory, as well as my 22 years of teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at NC State University.

My teaching philosophy consists of three distinct goals: (1) to guide students to develop their critical thinking skills; (2) to help students to establish a strong foundation in fundamental concepts and to develop problem-solving strategies. This can only be gained through examples, problems, and hands-on experience. i.e. “teach them how to fish instead of just feeding them fish;” and (3) to share the excitement about new and rapidly growing interdisciplinary fields and leverage my experience in research to teach lessons that will be of real use to the students.” – Dr. Yuan, 2012

Current Research

Yuan’s research represents the forefront of innovation in the development of advanced structural health monitoring systems and methods, which will immensely influence the future design and maintenance of structures, while providing for increased public safety in civic environments. Advanced structural health monitoring is expected to lead to significant decreases in maintenance costs for aerospace, mechanical, and civil structures, while increasing asset availability, and extending the life of structures. This will be achieved by employing advanced micro and nano sensors and actuators, which would serve as the “nerves” of the structure, being able to yield increasingly accurate measurements and predications of damage and degradation accrued by structures during their life cycle.

At NIA, Yuan’s research is focused on smart aircraft structures for structural health management and condition-based maintenance. Research thrusts include: composite material state awareness (damage state models, virtual load sensors, NDE inverse problems); structural health monitoring (multifunctional materials, damage detection and assessment); and health management (out-of-autoclave composite repair, smart repair, repair durability in damage tolerant and fail safe designs).

 Looking forward, Yuan endeavors to establish a multi-university, collaborative environment that would advance research and technology regarding sensors, actuators, microprocessors, signal processing, decision making algorithms, mechanics, and materials and structures as fundamental engineering tools for designing and building intelligent structures with multi-functionalities.

Publications

1. Zhou, L., Yang, Y., and Yuan, F.G., “Design of a Magnetostrictive Sensor for Structural Health Monitoring of Non-ferromagnetic Plates,” Journal of Vibroengineering, 14 (2012): 280-291
2. Chen, C., Li, Y., and Yuan, F.G., “An Enhanced Time-Reversal Method for Impact Damage Monitoring on Plate Structures,” Key Engineering Materials, Tran Tech., 2012.
3. An, J., Haftka, R.T., Kim, N.H., Yuan, F.G., Kwak, B.M., Sohn, H., and Yeum, C.,  “Experimental Study on Identifying Cracks of Increasing Size using Ultrasonic Excitation,” Structural Health Monitoring, 11 (2012): 95-108
4. Liu, L., Liu S.T., and Yuan, F.G.,  “Damage Localization using a Power-efficient On-board Distributed Signal Processing Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Network,” Smart Materials and Structures, 21 (2012): 025005, doi:10.1088/0964-1726/21/2/025005, 2012.
5. Huang, W., Kim, K., Zhang, S., Yuan, and X. Jiang, “Scaling Effect of Flexoelectric (Ba, Sr) TiO₃ Microcantilevers,” Phys. Status Solidi RRL 5, (2011): 350-352
6. W. Liu, X. H. Zhang, F. G. Yuan, F.G., et al., “Producing Superior Composites by Winding Carbon Nanotubes onto a Mandrel under a Ploy(vinyl alcohol) Spray,” Carbon, 49 (2011): 4786-4791
7. Wang, X., Bradford, P., Liu, W., Zhao, H., Inoue, Y., Yuan, F.G., and Zhu, Y.T., “Mechanical and Electrical Property Improvement in CNT/Nylon Composites through Drawing and Stretching,” Composites Science and Technology, 71 (2011): 1677-1683
8. Liu, L., and Yuan, F.G., “Nonlinear Vibration Energy Harvester using Diamagnetic Levitation,” Applied Physics Letters, 98 (2011): 203507, doi:10.1063/1.3583675