Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ph.D.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
219 AMIC Building

Mailing Address:
AMIC BUILDING
5350 TECHNOLOGY DRIVE
ERIE PA 16510

Dr. Sanei is an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering department. Dr. Sanei joined Penn State in August 2016. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 2016. 

Teaching

Dr. Sanei has pedagogical experience ranging from lab instruction, guest lecturing, and principal instructor at three different universities.

Teaching Philosophy

One of the main challenges in undergraduate teaching is to motivate students to appreciate the importance of topics covered. This could be achieved by providing students with real life engineering examples. Each course is different and therefore the teaching strategy should be unique to each course. For instance, while an intermediate mechanics of materials class may require weekly homework as adequate practice, advanced classes such as finite element analysis or composite materials require larger computer projects using ABAQUS and MATLAB in order to put into practice the concepts studied. PowerPoint presentation might be perfect for image analysis class, but it is a poor strategy for teaching Mechanical Vibrations.  A major challenge in teaching complex concepts is to keep in sight the larger application without being distracted by the details. Therefore, stating the problem and providing the big picture is as important as demonstrating an understanding of the details. While most of undergraduate teaching strategies apply to graduate instruction, teaching at graduate level should focus on equipping students with critical thinking skill by prompting them to read and dissect research papers. I give them the liberty of selecting papers in line with their thesis or dissertation research.  

I believe strong teacher-student rapport is a crucial element of enhanced learning. As a teacher one should build relationships by fostering a feeling of community and personally interacting with each student. Every question should be welcomed and every attempt at answering one must be encouraged. The teacher-student relationship should not end after final examination. A teacher should build an attitude that students feel comfortable seeking advice from their professor beyond classroom experience.  Teaching, like other skills, can and should be continually improved through student and peer feedback. Instructors must have the ability to incorporate different perspectives into their teaching style.

Courses Taught

  1. Statics (EMCH 211)
  2. Dynamics (EMCH 212)
  3. Strength of Martials (EMCH 213)
  4. Material Testing Lab (ME365)
  5. Measurement and Experimentation Lab (ME345 W)
  6. Composite Materials (ME4210)
  7. Machine Design (ME367)

Research

Dr. Sanei’s research interests are in the area of

  • Composite Materials: Computational Modeling, Manufacturing and Experimental Testing                   
  • FEA: Nonlinear FEA, Stochastic FEA and XFEM
  • Material Characterization: Nanoindentation, Micrograph Analysis
  • Multiscale Modeling: Homogenization technique, RVE, SVE and UVE Modeling   
  • Failure and Fracture Mechanics
  • Image Processing: Image acquisition with SEM, TEM and Optical microscopy, Image analysis of micrographs

Composite materials are widely used in different application simply because they are offering properties that other materials cannot. Despite the advantages associated with the use of composite materials in different industrial sectors, variability in their properties has made predicting their reliability a challenge and led to the use of high safety factors in real applications. While such variability has been studied experimentally, the link between the observed variability and the physics of the underlying microstructure has not been rigorously established. Such variabilities are present in microstructures in the form of both morphological and constituent properties variability. It is important to determining such variabilities and incorporate them in stochastic modeling to predict the macroscopic properties.

Research Opportunities

Students interested in materials research are encouraged to contact Dr. Sanei. Desirable candidates would have experience with composite materials and MATLAB programming or a strong desire to learn. 

Funding

Funding is available for undergraduate students during Summer and Academic year.

Service

  • Reviewer for journal of composite material
  • Track organizer for American Society of Composites Conference
  • Research Mentor/Adviser for graduate and undergraduate students
  • Senior Design Adviser 

Composite Materials, FEA, Material Characterization, Multiscale Modeling, Failure and Fracture Mechanics, Image Processing

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ray S. Fertig, Stochastic multiscale approach to predict failure initiation and progression in composite materials, Submitted to AIAA Journal, July 2017.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ercole J. Barsotti, David A. Leonhardt, Ray S. Fertig III, Characterization, Synthetic Generation, and Statistical Equivalence Analysis of Composite Microstructures, Journal of composite materials, 51 (2017) 1817-1829.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei and Ray S. Fertig III, Length-scale dependence of variability in epoxy modulus extracted from composite prepreg, Polymer Testing, 50 (2015) 297-300.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, R.S. Fertig III, Uncorrelated volume element for stochastic modeling of microstructures based on local fiber volume fraction variation, Composites Science and Technology, 117 (2015) 191-198.

Chung-Souk Han, Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, F. Alisafaei, On the origin of indentation size effects and depth dependent mechanical properties of elastic polymers, Journal of Polymer Engineering, 36 (2015) 103-111.

F. Alisafaei, Chung-Souk Han, Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, On the time and indentation depth dependence of hardness, dissipation and stiffness in polydimethylsiloxane, Polymer Testing, 32 (2013) 1220-1228.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ray S. Fertig, Stochastic multiscale approach to predict failure initiation and progression in composite materials, SciTech 2017, Grapevine, TX, January 9-13, 2017

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ray S. Fertig, Effect of Fiber Morphology on the Elastic Properties of Statistically Equivalent Uncorrelated Volume Elements, SAMPE conference, Long Beach, CA 2016.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ray S. Fertig, stochastic failure analysis of an uncorrelated volume element using extended finite element, 31st ASC Technical Conference and ASTM D30 Meeting, Williamsburg, Virginia 2016.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Eric Jensen, Ray S. Fertig, Multiscale Stochastic Analysis of FRP based on variability in fiber volume fraction, epoxy stiffness and strength, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Orlando 2015.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ray S. Fertig, Generation of Synthetic FRP Microstructures Based on Experimentally Observed Microstructures, TMS 2015, Orlando, Florida.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, Ray S Fertig, Capturing Size Effects in Composites Using Progressive Failure Stochastic Simulation, ICME 2015, Colorado Spring.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, F. Alisafaei, Chung-Souk Han, Indenter tip dependence in the determination of elastic modulus in polymers, ASME Int Mech Eng Congress & Exposition, San Diego, California 2013.

F. Alisafaei, Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, C.-S. Han, On the time dependence of size effect in PDMS, ASME Int Mech Eng Congress & Exposition, San Diego, California, 2013.

F. Alisafaei, Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, C.-S. Han, Length Scale Dependent Deformation in Polymers, ASME Int Mech Eng Congress & Exposition, Houston, Texas, 2012.

Seyed Hamid Reza Sanei, J. Rezaeepazhand. Critical load of a transversely cracked beam. The 2nd International Conference on Composites: Characterization, Fabrication, and Application, 2010.

Ph D, Mechanical Engineering , The University of Wyoming

MS, Mechanical Engineering , Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

BS, Mechanical Engineering , Azad University