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Timothy Ovaert

Professor
Director of Graduate Studies

Education: Ph.D. - Northwestern University, 1989

Research Interests: Tribology, Nanomechanical Characterization, Biomaterials, Biomechanics, Manufacturing, Design

Courses: Mechanics of Solids; Reliability Engineering; Heat Transfer; Mechanical Engineering Design; Advanced Mechanics of Solids; Mechanics of Sliding Surfaces; Continuum Mechanics

Email: tovaert@nd.edu

Phone: 574.631.9371

Office: 146 Multidisciplinary Research Building

Website: http://myprofile.cos.com/tovaert

Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Ovaert conducts research on orthopaedic biomaterials, biomaterial characterization methods utilizing nanoindentation and computational modeling, and soft material contact mechanics and simulation. His research also encompasses orthopaedic tribology, and advanced manufacturing/design technologies. Dr. Ovaert has received both Research Initiation and National Young Investigator Awards from the National Science Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and a recipient of the ASME Burt L. Newkirk Award, and the Ralph R. Teetor Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). He has served as the Chair of the STLE/ASME International Joint Tribology Conference, and as Chair of the ASME Research Committee on Tribology. Dr. Ovaert directs the Nanomechanics and Tribology Laboratory, located in the Multidisciplinary Research Building.

Selected Publications

  • Lechner, L. A. and Ovaert, T. C., Value-at-risk: Techniques to Account for Leptokurtosis and Asymmetric Behavior in Returns Distributions, submitted for publication to the Journal of Risk Finance.
  • Shepherd, T. N., Ovaert, T. C., Zhang, J., and Niebur, G. L., Nanoindentation and Macroscopic Measurements of Bone Viscoelasticity, submitted for publication to the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A.
  • Zhang, J., Michalenko, M. M., Kuhl, E., and Ovaert, T. C., Characterization of Indentation Response and Stiffness Reduction of Bone using a Continuum Damage Model, accepted for publication in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.
  • Liu, K., VanLandingham, M. R., Ovaert, T. C., 2009, Mechanical Characterization of Soft Viscoelastic Gels via Indentation and Optimization-Based Inverse Finite Element Analysis, Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 2, 4, pp. 355-363.
  • Wang, J. and Ovaert, T. C., 2009, Computational Mechanical Property Determination of Viscoelastic/Plastic Materials from Nanoindentation Creep Test Data, Journal of Materials Research, 24, 3, pp. 1230-1242.
  • He, L. and Ovaert, T. C., 2008, Three-Dimensional Rough Surface Contact Model for General Anistotropic Materials, ASME Trans., Journal of Tribology, 130, 021402.
  • Liu, K., Ovaert, T. C., and Mason, J. J., 2008, Preparation and Mechanical Characterization of a PNIPA Hydrogel Composite, Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, 19, 4, pp. 1815-1821.
  • He, L. and Ovaert, T. C., 2008, Heat Partitioning Coefficient Calculations for Sliding Contacts with Friction, Tribology Transactions, 51, 1, pp. 12-18.
  • Zhang, J., Niebur, G. L., and Ovaert, T. C., 2008, Mechanical Property Determination of Bone through Nano- and Micro-Indentation Testing and Finite Element Simulation, Journal of Biomechanics, 41, 2, pp. 267-275.
  • Lin, Y. and Ovaert, T. C., 2006, Thermal Distortion of an Anisotropic Elastic Half-Plane and its Application in Contact Problems Including Frictional Heating, ASME Trans., Journal of Tribology, 128, 1, pp. 32-39.
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