Professor of Computational Mechanics
Academic Division: Civil Engineering
Research group: Structures
Telephone: +44 1223 3 32716
Email: fc286@cam.ac.uk
Research interests
Dr Cirak's research is focused on computational modelling and analysis of light-weight structures originating from a wide range of applications, including structural engineering, aerospace and marine engineering. Specific areas of research emphasis include:
- advanced discretization methods for integrated design, optimisation and analysis of solids and structural components such as beams, membranes and shells,
- computational fluid-structure interaction with application to micro-air-vehicle design and insect flight, and
- mechanical modelling and computational analysis of large-scale structural membranes, such as parachutes and inflatable decelerators for outer-space applications.
In terms of computational methods development two overriding themes throughout his research are:
- the integration of, traditionally disparate, computational analysis and geometry using immersed and b-spline based finite element discretization techniques,
- the development of scalable computational methods for simulating challenging engineering problems on high-end parallel computers.
Strategic themes
Energy, transport and urban infrastructure
Current research interests include multiscale shape and topology optimisation for lightweighting and fluid-structure interaction with application to biomimetic energy harvesters.
Manufacturing, design and materials
Current research interests include integrated geometric design (CAD), simulation (FEA) and structural optimisation using subdivision surfaces with application to additive manufacturing.
Research projects
Teaching activity
- Nonlinear Solid Mechanics (Michaelmas term, 2007--2017)
- Finite Element Methods (Lent term, 2009--2017)
- Structural Analysis and Stability (Lent term, 2007--2018)
- Solid Mechanics (Michaelmas term, 2014--2017)
Biography
Prior to Cambridge Dr Cirak was a Senior/Associate Scientist at the Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) at the California Institute of Technology. He has a PhD in Computational Structural Mechanics from the University of Stuttgart and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Aeronautics and Computer Science at the California Institute of Technology.