Catalin R. Picu Associate Professor 2048 Jonsson Engineering Center Tel: (518) 276-2195; Fax: (518) 276-6025; E-mail: picuc@rpi.edu [ MANE || Faculty ]

Education

B.S. 1989 Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania
Ph.D. 1995 Dartmouth College

Catalin Picu received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania, in 1989. He then joined the faculty of the same institution working in the area of Solid Mechanics. In 1992 he entered the PhD program in Applied Mechanics at Dartmouth College from where he obtained his degree in 1995. Shortly after, Dr. Picu joined the Solid Mechanics group at Brown University where he worked until coming to RPI as a faculty member in August 1998.

Research Interests and Activities

Major interests: micro- and nano-mechanics of solids, scale-linking, dynamics of polymers.

The motivation for the research performed in Professor Picu's group comes, in part, from the continuous
miniaturization of manufactured devices, in particular that of electronic devices and MEMS. This decrease
in scale implies that the overall performance of the components is determined by processes taking place
in smaller and smaller volumes of material which, in turn, requires a better control of properties of
materials at the atomic scale. Another motivation for the research in nano-mechanics is supplied by the
observation that the macroscopic behavior of materials, described by constitutive laws, is determined by
the mechanical behavior of defects, at the atomic scale. These issues are approached both experimentally and by simulations. A detailed description of the research programs and results obtained to date may be found at
http://www.scorec.rpi.edu/nanomechanics

Teaching Activities

Professor Picu teaches a two-part graduate-level course in mechanical behavior of materials and a graduate level course in mechanics of thin films. These courses are developed based on the observation that the complex mechanical behavior phenomenology observed at the macro-scale is rooted in a set of laws describing the mechanical behavior of defects at the nano-scale. The list of topics discussed in these courses may be found here.

Selected Publications

R. C. Picu, "Atomistic-Continuum Simulations of Nano-Indentation in Molybdenum," J. Computer-Aided
Matls. Design., Vol. 7, p. 77-87, 2000.

R. C. Picu, G. Loriot and J. H. Weiner, "Towards a Unified View of Stress in Small Molecular and
Macromolecular Liquids," J. Chem. Phys.,Vol. 110, p. 4678-4685, 1999.

R. C. Picu, J. Rankin and A. F. Schwartzman, "Direct Observations of Surface Sublimation and Relaxation
in CdTe {111} Films by High Resolution Electron Microscopy," Phil. Mag. Lett., Vol. 79, p. 241-247,1999.

R. C. Picu, "Intrinsic Distributions and Atomic-Level Stress in Polymeric Melts," Macromolecules, Vol. 32, p.
7319-7324, 1999.

R. C. Picu and J. H. Weiner, "Stress Relaxation in Diatomic Fluids" J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 108, p.
4984-4991, 1998.

M.S. Ozmusul and R.C. Picu, "Elastic moduli for particulate composites with graded filler-matrix
interfaces," Polymer Composites; in press.