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Armaghan Salehian

Associate Professor, Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering

Research interests: inflatable space structures, dynamics, vibrations, continuum modelling, energy harvesting using smart materials

Biography Summary

Professor Armaghan Salehian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Professor Salehian’s research interests include the application of smart materials for energy harvesting, sensing, and actuation of mechanical systems. She has also performed extensive research on wrinkle modelling, flatness control, and vibrations modelling of space membranes and inflatable/deployable space structures using numerical techniques and homogenization analytical methods.

She has collaborated with Lockheed Martin, and the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and has secured funding from various agencies such as the Ontario Centres of Excellence, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Professor Salehian is also a member of several societies and institutes, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institutes.

Education

Doctorate, Mechanical Engineering, space structures, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2008
Master's, Mechanical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2003
Master's, Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, 2000
Bachelor's, Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 1997

Research

The broader spectrum of research on structural vibrations and the training I received at the Center for Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures during my PhD led me to start new research on energy harvesting technologies. Though my research contributions in this area are very recent, my publications in tier-one journals were featured in national media outlets. In December 2013, CBC Radio highlighted the wide-band hybrid vibrations harvester we designed, which employs two smart material solutions.

I performed collaborative research with Silicon Pro Co. in Ottawa to develop smart material solutions for self-contained sensing in smart grids. This sensing unit is used to detect power failure in transmission lines and relay this failure to a central processing unit via wireless communication channels. Our harvesting unit harvests minimal, yet sufficient, energy from the wires to ensure the sensor is self-contained. There is no need to rely on batteries for its operation.

Publications

Recent publications include:

Fernandes, E., Martin, B., Rua, I., Zarabi, S., Debéda, H., Nairn, D., Wei, L., and Salehian, A., Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a Low Frequency MEMS Piezoelectromagnetic Energy Harvester. Smart Materials and Structures. 27: 1-15
Edher, and Salehian, A., On the Improvement of the Dynamic Performance of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators for Active Compression Applications. Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures. In Press
Edher, H., Maupas, L., Nijjer, S., and Salehian, A., A Dielectric Elastomer-based Active Compression System. Journal of Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures. In Press
Ibrahim, M., Salehian, A. (2015). Modeling, Fabrication, and Experimental Validation of Hybrid Piezo- Magnetostrictive and Piezomagnetic Energy Harvesting Units. Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures. 26(10): 1259-1271
Lao, S.B., Chauhan, S.S., Pollock, T.E., Schröder, T., Cho, I., Salehian, A. (2014). Design, Fabrication and Temperature Sensitivity Testing of a Miniature Piezoelectric-based Sensor for Current Measurements. Actuators. 3: 162-181
Chen, Y., Pollock, T.E., Salehian, A. (2013). Analysis of Compliance Effects on Power Generation of a Nonlinear Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting Unit; Theory and Experiment. Smart Materials and Structures. 22(9)