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Cellular Biomechanics and Sports Science

Graduate and undergraduate students conduct research in Villanova Engineering’s Cellular Biomechanics and Sports Science.

Villanova’s Cellular Biomechanics and Sports Science Laboratory is dedicated to investigating transport phenomena in biological systems and applying lessons learned to bio-inspired applications.

Focused on experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies of multi-scale transport phenomena, current research areas include:

Bio-fluid mechanics

  • Fluid dynamic and transport aspects in cardiovascular systems
  • Cellular biomechanics and mechanotransduction
  • Patient specific hemodynamics
  • Brain biomechanics

Bio-mimicry

  • Lift generation in a soft porous media and its applications to super lubrication
  • The lift mechanics of skiing

Transport Phenomena

  • Theoretical, experimental and computational fluid mechanics
  • Porous media flow
  • Jet impingement and its application to electronics cooling
  • Ship hydrodynamics

Facilities

In these areas of study, the following facilities and equipment are available:  

Soft Porous Lubrication

  • Macro-scale soft porous lubrication apparatus
  • Small-scale soft porous lubrication apparatus
  • Sliding motion lubrication testing setup

Multi-scale Porous Media Flow

  • Permeameters—experimental setups to measure the compression-dependent Darcy permeability of a thin porous layer and random porous media
  • Scaled-up indenter for macro-scale porous media—an apparatus for measuring both fluid and solid phases lift generation in macro-scale porous media
  • Scaled-up indenter for meso-scale porous media— an apparatus for measuring both fluid and solid phases lift generation in meso-scale porous media

Brain Biomechanics Apparatus

  • Experimental apparatus to study the translational impacts and rotational impacts on an artificial head model

An Experimental Setup to Study Squeeze Damping

Cellular Biomechanics Experimental Setup

  • Laminar fume hood
  • Incubator
  • Inverted Microscope
  • Flow Chambers with Peristaltic Pump

Contact

Dr. Qianhong Wu

Dr. Qianhong Wu
Director of Cellular Biomechanics and Sports Science Laboratory
Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Tolentine Hall 113F
Email: qianhong.wu@villanova.edu