About

Alan Wineman is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He holds the title of Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus and has a distinguished career in the field of mechanics. His research interests include the mechanics of continua, including nonlinear elasticity and viscoelasticity of polymers, the theory of interacting continua, non-Fickian diffusion in polymers, yield-induced phenomena in polymers, modeling microstructural changes in polymers, and studies in electrorheological fluids. Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions to the understanding of complex material behaviors and continuum mechanics. Professor Wineman has received numerous honors and awards recognizing his research excellence and teaching achievements. These include the Research Excellence Award from the University of Michigan College of Engineering, the William Prager Medal from the Society of Engineering Science, and fellowships in the Society of Engineering Science and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has also been honored with awards for distinguished teaching and service, reflecting his dedication to education and research in mechanics. His work has been celebrated through various lectures, awards, and recognitions, underscoring his impact on the field of mechanics and engineering education.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Mechanics
• Composite material
• Mathematics
• Classical mechanics

Selected publications

• UV light-driven deformations in photoactive fiber-reinforced planar annular membranes

  Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids · 2025-02-14

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Engineered fibers such as azobenzene—a photoresponsive material—change their stress free or natural reference length in response to ultraviolet (UV) light. This work focuses on the mechanics of a plane annular membrane formed from a homogeneous incompressible nonlinear elastic material reinforced by an axisymmetric distribution of activated fibers lying in a plane parallel to the mid-surface. The lengths of these fibers can be triggered to change by non-mechanical influences such as temperature change or radiation from an UV light source. Each fiber has the shape of a plane spiral curve that extends from the inner to the outer radius. The membrane is attached to a rigid circular disc at the inner boundary. The outer boundary can have a prescribed radial stretch. A new constitutive model for the UV-activated fiber-reinforced medium is developed. Boundary value problems that combine twist with radial expansion are formulated and solved as a system of ordinary differential equations. Corresponding finite element (FE) models are also developed. Results show that the contraction of the spiral fibers will lead to a shape change, a shearing deformation in the radial-circumferential plane, and a distribution of shear stresses within the membrane. The resulting shear deformation may cause a principal stress to become negative indicating wrinkling. The shearing deformation disappears in the special cases of radial and circumferential fiber distributions while negative principal stresses might still present. We consider conditions where wrinkling may be avoided by imposing a radial stretch. We also investigate the regimes of instability due to the compressive stress in the membrane using FE methods. Such understanding is critical to multiple applications including designing soft robotic devices that can be actuated by active fibers, biomechanical modeling of biological phenomena (e.g., vasoconstriction and vasodilation in blood vessels, the peristalsis motion in urinary and gastrointestinal tract systems), and complex deformation in muscular hydrostats of animals.

  PublisherDOI

• UV light-driven deformations in photoactive fiber-reinforced planar annular membranes

  Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids · 2025-11-01

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Engineered fibers such as azobenzene—a photoresponsive material—change their stress free or natural reference length in response to ultraviolet (UV) light. This work focuses on the mechanics of a plane annular membrane formed from a homogeneous incompressible nonlinear elastic material reinforced by an axisymmetric distribution of activated fibers lying in a plane parallel to the mid-surface. The lengths of these fibers can be triggered to change by non-mechanical influences such as temperature change or radiation from an UV light source. Each fiber has the shape of a plane spiral curve that extends from the inner to the outer radius. The membrane is attached to a rigid circular disc at the inner boundary. The outer boundary can have a prescribed radial stretch. A new constitutive model for the UV-activated fiber-reinforced medium is developed. Boundary value problems that combine twist with radial expansion are formulated and solved as a system of ordinary differential equations. Corresponding finite element (FE) models are also developed. Results show that the contraction of the spiral fibers will lead to a shape change, a shearing deformation in the radial-circumferential plane, and a distribution of shear stresses within the membrane. The resulting shear deformation may cause a principal stress to become negative indicating wrinkling. The shearing deformation disappears in the special cases of radial and circumferential fiber distributions while negative principal stresses might still present. We consider conditions where wrinkling may be avoided by imposing a radial stretch. We also investigate the regimes of instability due to the compressive stress in the membrane using FE methods. Such understanding is critical to multiple applications including designing soft robotic devices that can be actuated by active fibers, biomechanical modeling of biological phenomena (e.g., vasoconstriction and vasodilation in blood vessels, the peristalsis motion in urinary and gastrointestinal tract systems), and complex deformation in muscular hydrostats of animals.

  PublisherDOI

• Viscoelastic Solids

  Solid mechanics and its applications · 2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Tension/torsion of electroactive solid cylinders

  International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics · 2024-11-30 · 2 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Residual stresses for a new class of transversely isotropic nonlinear elastic solid

  Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids · 2024-06-10 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  We study the response of a class of transversely elastic bodies, wherein the Green–Saint Venant strain tensor is a function of the second Piola–Kirchhoff stress tensor, when the body is residually stressed. The notion of such non-Cauchy elastic bodies being transversely isotropic is defined in Rajagopal (Mech. Res. Commun. 64, 2015, 38–41), and by a body being residually stressed, we mean the interior of the body is not in a stress-free state although the boundary is free of traction as considered by Coleman and Noll (Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 15, 1964, 87–111) and by Hoger (Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 88, 1985, 271–289).

  PublisherDOI

• Residual stress and material symmetry

  International Journal of Engineering Science · 2024-01-29 · 12 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Branching of axial compression histories of solid cylinders undergoing thermo-chemo-mechanical changes

  International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics · 2024-01-18

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A finite strain integral model for the creep behavior of vaginal tissue

  International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics · 2024-04-10 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Universal relations for electroactive solids undergoing shear and triaxial extension

  International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics · 2024-11-19 · 3 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Treloar–Kearsley bifurcation problem using a new class of constitutive equations

  Zeitschrift für angewandte Mathematik und Physik · 2024-10-18 · 2 citations

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Κ. R. Rajagopal

  Texas A&M University

  51 shared

• Anthony M. Waas

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  23 shared

• John A. Shaw

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  21 shared

• Thomas J. Pence

  Michigan State University

  12 shared

• Keshava Rajagopal

  Thomas Jefferson University

  11 shared

• Hasan Demirkoparan

  Carnegie Mellon University Qatar

  10 shared

• Nhung Nguyen

  University of Chicago

  8 shared

• John Kieffer

  7 shared

Education

• PhD/Professor, Mechanical Engineering

  University of Michigan

Awards & honors

• Research Excellence Award, University of Michigan College of…
• William Prager Medal, Society of Engineering Science (2009)
• Fellow, Society of Engineering Science (2007)
• Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, University of Michi…
• Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2006)