Kaan Inal

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

Professor Inal’s research interests are in metal formability, micromechanics, crystal plasticity, instabilities and localized deformation phenomena in materials, and high performance computing (parallel computing).

10 Canadian universities were given funding for research into more energy efficient and environmentally friendly cars, under a program funded jointly by the federal government and industry. Three researchers in the University of Waterloo's Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department received funding for projects and Professor Inal received $2.7 million for a project that is looking into the development of extruded aluminum front rails for lightweight automotive bodies.

Professor Inal constructs numerical and theoretical models of how the individual crystals in metal slip past one another. He runs his models on one of Canada’s most powerful supercomputer networks – SharcNET, of which Waterloo is a charter member. The models can predict to a fraction of a micron where, for example, a hydroformed tube will crumple in a head-on crash test. This modelling can lead to the design of stronger and lighter alloys and better, cost-effective automobile parts.

• Finite-strain plasticity
• Micromechanics of deformation
• Metal Formability
• Crystal plasticity
• Numerical modeling with FEM
• Parallel Computing
• Nanotechnology
• Automotive
• Instabilities and Localized Deformation Phenomena in Materials
• Additive Manufacturing

• 2001, Doctorate, Engineering, University of Sherbrooke
• 1997, Master's, Engineering, University of Sherbrooke
• 1995, Bachelor's, Engineering, Middle East Technical University

• MTE 119 - Statics
  • Taught in 2015
• ME 620 - Mechanics of Continua
  • Taught in 2015
• ME 481 - Mechanical Engineering Design Project 1
  • Taught in 2016
• ME 725 - Special Topics in Advanced Stress Analysis
  • Taught in 2016, 2017
• ME 219 - Mechanics of Deformable Solids 1
  • Taught in 2016, 2018, 2019
• ME 559 - Finite Element Methods
  • Taught in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

• Muhammad, Waqas and Brahme, Abhijit and Kang, Jidong and Mishra, Raja and Inal, Kaan, Large Strain Cyclic Simple Shear Behavior of Aluminum Extrusions: An xperimental and Numerical Study, Light Metals 2016, 2016, 169 - 174
• Kohar, Christopher P and Cherkaoui, Mohammed and El Kadiri, Haitham and Inal, Kaan, Numerical Modeling of TRIP Steel in Axial Crashworthiness, International Journal of Plasticity, 2016
• Kohar, Christopher P and Zhumagulov, Amir and Brahme, Abhijit and Worswick, Michael J and Mishra, Raja K and Inal, Kaan, Development of high crush efficient, extrudable aluminium front rails for vehicle lightweighting, International Journal of Impact Engineering, 95, 2016, 17 - 34
• Sabiston, Trevor and Mohammadi, Mohsen and Cherkaoui, Mohammed and Lévesque, Julie and Inal, Kaan, Micromechanics for a long fibre reinforced composite model with a functionally graded interphase, Composites Part B: Engineering, 84, 2016, 188 - 199
• Kohar, Christopher P and Mohammadi, Mohsen and Mishra, Raja K and Inal, Kaan, The effects of the yield surface curvature and anisotropy constants on the axial crush response of circular crush tubes, Thin-Walled Structures, 106, 2016, 28 - 50