Kenneth M. Newbury

Office: 
310 Durham Hall
Mechanical Engineering Department
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA  24061-0261

Tel:    (540) 231-2910               
Fax:    (540) 231-2903             
E-mail: knewbury@vt.edu 

• Biography
• Research Project
• Publications

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Biography

Kenn is a doctoral candidate in Mechanical Engineering whose interests include modeling and control of dynamic mechanical systems. He received a B.S in Mechanical Engineering and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toledo in 1991. After working as a mechanical engineer for several years, he returned to school and received his MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo in 1999. Kenn is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.

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Research Project

Objective

Investigate the physics of ionic polymer materials for the purpose of modeling and control.

Recent Results

• Built a fixture for testing the force-displacement relationships of ionic polymer material samples.
• Determined the force-displacement relationships for small material samples.
• Built and tested a charge-controlled circuit for exciting ionic polymer materials.
• Discovered an electromechanical coupling coefficient that relates charge flow to mechanical deformation.
• Developed a two-port modeling technique for ionic polymer materials.
• Demonstrated that ionic polymer materials exhibit a 'permanent strain' when excited with an electrical signal.
• Investigated the charge sensing properties of ionic polymer materials.

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Publications

1. Newbury, K.M., 1999, "A Variational Model of Eccentrically Stiffened Plates with Surface Bonded Piezoceramic Wafers," Masters Thesis, The University of Toledo.

2. Newbury, K., Leo, D.J, “Electromechanical Modeling and Characterization of Ionic Polymer Benders,” to appear in the Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures.

3. Newbury, K.M., Leo, D.J., 2001, “Mechanical work and electromechanical coupling in ionic polymer bender actuators,” Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, paper number AD-23705.

4. Newbury, K.M.*, Leo, D.J., 2001, “Structural dynamics of stiffened plates with piezoceramic sensors and actuators,” AIAA Journal, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 942-950. 

5. Newbury, K.M.*, Mallavarapu, K.*, Leo, D.J., Shahinpoor, M., 2001, “Ionic polymer actuators for optical positioning systems,” to appear in the Space 2001 Conference, Albuquerque, NM. 

6. Mallavarapu, K.*, Newbury, K.M.*, Leo, D.J., 2001, “Feedback control of the bending response of ionic polymer metal  composite actuators,” Proceedings of the SPIE, vol. 4329, pp. 301-310.

7. Newbury, K., Leo, D.J., 2000, "Structural dynamics of grid stiffened plates incorporating piezoceramic sensors and actuators", AIAA Paper Number 2000-1496.

8. Newbury, K., Leo, D.J., Anderson, E.H., Glaese, R., 1998, "Dynamic characterization of composite grid stiffened material for active structural-acoustic control," Proceedings of the Adaptive Structures and Materials Symposium, ASME AD-vol. 57, pp. 103-108.

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