| Building: | Mackenzie, Room 3252 |
| Department: | Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering |
| Degrees: | BSc. Mechanical Engineering (Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas-ESPE), Ph.D. (University of Alberta) |
Biography
Dr. Irina Garces specializes in composite-smart materials such as bio, multifunctional nanomaterials, and additive manufacturing of shape memory composites, nanocomposites, and multi-materials parts. Her work included developing, modelling, and manufacturing additive-manufactured shape memory polymers for field applications. She designed a manufacturing method, developed viscoelastic models to predict the behaviour of complex polymers, and produced self-sensing actuators. She has designed and built various polymer processing equipment and mechatronic systems, such as spinning, winding and extrusion equipment. She has also contributed to the development of additive manufacturing of biomedical and robotics’ parts. She has developed processing and manufacturing techniques for diverse materials such as commercial polymers, cellulose-based materials, and carbon fibres. Some of her most recent work includes developing new additive manufacturing systems for processing regenerated cellulose to produce bio-based parts.
Research Interests:
- Processing, modelling, and manufacturing of polymers
- Developing sensors and actuators with polymers
- Soft robotics
- Composite materials: Nano and fibre reinforced
- Producing smart and multifunctional materials
- Additive manufacturing of polymeric materials
- Design and manufacturing of additive manufactured parts for biomedical applications
- Biodegradable and bio-based materials
- Development of novel 3D printing technologies
- Microplastics monitoring and sensing
Research
Dr. Garces is interested in developing “materials as machines” – producing material systems that can adapt to variable operating environmental conditions through feedback control. These smart material systems can be used in various applications such as deployable actuators, robotic manipulators, soft-robotics, wearables, biomedical applications such as prosthetics and the aerospace and space-exploration industry. These material systems have the potential to be used in real low-cost engineering applications by constructing them using additive manufacturing. She is also interested in contributing to new eco-friendly bio-based material solutions for the packaging and manufacturing industry.
Selected Publications
I.T.Garces, S.Aslanzadeh, Y.Boluk, and C.Ayranci, “Effect of Moisture on Shape Memory Polyurethane Polymers for Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing,” Materials 2, vol. 12, no. 2, p. 244, Jan. 2019.
I.T. Garces and C. Ayranci, “A view into additive manufactured electro-active reinforced smart composite structures,” Manufacturing Letters, vol. 16, pp. 1-5, Apr. 2018.
I.T. Garces and C. Ayranci, “Active control of 4D prints: Towards 4D printed reliable actuators and sensors,” Sensors & Actuators: A. Physical, vol. 301, p. 111717, Jan. 2020.
I.T. Garces, and Ayranci, C. (2021), “Advances in additive manufacturing of shape memory polymer composites,” Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 379-398. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-07-2020-0174
Y.Chen, I. T. Garces, T. Tang, and C. Ayranci, “Cellulose nanocrystals reinforced shape memory polymer cardiovascular stents,” RPJ, vol. ahead-of-print, no, p. 19, Dec. 2020.
I.T. Garces, S. Aslanzadeh, and Y. Boluk, “Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) reinforced shape memory polyurethane ribbons for future biomedical applications and design,” Journal of Thermoplastic Composites, vol. 4, no. 74003, p. 089270571880633, Oct. 2018.
