About us

Background

In 2001, DIT established the Non-linear Materials Research Group (NLMRG), an interdisciplinary group carrying out research into the characterisation of hyperelastic and viscoelastic properties of elastomers for Engineering and Biomedical applications. NLMRG became the Centre for Elastomer Research (CER) in June 2008. CER has the unique capability of producing reliable viscoelastic (time-dependent) data for characterising the multi-axial physical properties of rubber. Current research group interests are: Hyperelastic and Viscoelastic Material Behaviour including Elastomer Fatigue, Stress Softening and Stress Relaxation; Biomedical Applications for Advanced Rubbers; Advanced Foams; Swelling Phenomenon; Magnetorhedigical Elastomers (MREs) and Acoustics. Six PhDs and five MPhil research students have graduated from the group since its inception, research earnings are in excess of €1.5m and over seventy refereed papers have been published. CER is in partnership with leading companies in the rubber industry including the Deutsches Institut für Kautschuktechnologie and VMI-AZ. 

CER         

Members of the CER team at the 2011 ECCMR International Conference hosted by DIT 

Role

Name

Research Interests

Director & Supervisor

 Steve Jerrams Hyperelasticity, Viscoelasticity, Fatigue, Strain Energy, Smart Elastomers, Biomedical Applications

Team Leader & Supervisor

 Niall Murphy

Multi-Axial Elastomer Fatigue, Machine
Vision, Dynamic Stress Softening,
Design, Manufacture of Materials
Testing Apparatus

Supervisor 

 Hassan Ali Chemical Analyses related to
Viscoelastic Phenomena

Supervisor

 John Hanley Swelling Phenomenon and Elastomer
Fatigue, Machine Vision, Dynamic Stress
Softening

Postdoctoral Researcher

Lin Chen

Magnetorheolgical Elastomers (MREs), Interfacial Layers Analysis, Simulations

Research Associate

 John McNamara Localised Stress Softening, Dynamic
Analysis of Heart Muscle, Testing of
Biomaterials, Finite Element Analysis

Research Management External

 Marek Rebow Transport Phenomena and Materials

PhD Student

Jennifer McIntyre

Adaptive Elastomer Characterisation

PhD Student

Dave Gorman

Dynamic Properties of MREs, Electromagnets

PhD Student 

Simon Wachter

Optimisation of Continuous Mixing

PhD Student

 Yanfen Zhou MRE Fabrication, 8 Testing

PhD Student

Mark Johnson

Equi-biaxial Dynamic Testing and Optimisation

PhD Student

Conor Briody

Advanced Foams

Supervisor

Ray Ekins

System Design

Supervisor

Tony Betts

MRE Fabrication, Chemistry

Supervisor

Stephen Ronan

Long Term Stress Relaxation

Supervisor 

Barry Duignan

Foams, Simulation Optimisation of Continious Mixing

External Supervisor

Olaf Skibba

 Extrusion Processes

Researcher

 John Grimes Acoustics