Zengtao Chen, PhD, PEng, FCAE, FASME, FCSME

Area of Study / Keywords

Mechanics and Materials Design and Manufacturing Computational Mechanics Materials Modelling Smart Materials and Structures Nanomaterials and Structures Composites and Polymers Advanced Manufacturing High-Performance Materials Structural Reliability Systems Integration Systems Reliability

About

Education:

• PhD, University of Waterloo
• MSc, PhD, Harbin Institute of Technology
• BSc, Nanjing University of Science and Technology

Awards/Honors:

• Solid Mechanics Medal, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME), 2026
• Frank Spragins Technical Award, The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), 2024 
• Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering, elected in 2023
• Fellow, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, elected in 2020
• Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, elected in 2017
• International Journal of Applied Mechanics 6 year most cited paper award 2009-2015
• University of New Brunswick Merit Award, 2007, 2013
• University of New Brunswick Research Scholar, 2012-2014
• Mechanical Professor of the year and UNB Teaching Excellence award, 2012

Research

Dr. Zengtao Chen joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Alberta as a Professor in August 2014. He has been a faculty member with the Department of Mechanical Engineering of University of New Brunswick for ten years prior to the current position with UofA. His research areas include Mechanics of Materials, Materials Modelling, and Damage and Fracture Mechanics. His recent work includes multiscale modelling of deformation and damage evolution in aluminum and steel alloys, advanced thermal stress analysis of smart materials and structures, nanostructures, and composite structures. He is a Fellow of CAE, ASME and CSME.

Recent Publications：

Zheng Yan, Ying Wang, Zhijie Xia, Zengtao Chen, Dynamic physics-Weighted Gaussian process regression for robust thermal error prediction under non-stationary conditions, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 171 (2026) 114205 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2026.114205 

Junhao Chang, Zengtao Chen, James D. Hogan, Innovative multiscale analysis of environmental effects on fracture properties in amorphous alumina ceramics, Engineering Fracture Mechanics 315 (2025) 110699  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfracmech.2024.110699 

S.F. Nikrad, A.H. Akbarzadeh, M. Hamidinejad, Z.T. Chen, Effects of functionally graded graphene reinforcements on nonlinear post-local buckling and axial stiffness of laminated channel section struts, Thin-Walled Structures 195 (2024) 111517 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2023.111517

Weilin Yang, Zengtao Chen, Multiphysical model to predict thermomechanical fracture of functional hierarchical biomimetic composites, Composite Structures 303 (2023) 116261 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2022.116261 

Full list of publications can be found here. 

MEC E 301 - Mechanical Engineering Laboratory I

Laboratory experiments in mechanical engineering measurement techniques, treatment of measurement data, introduction to engineering report writing. Corequisite: MEC E 300.

Browse more courses taught by Zengtao Chen

• Google Scholar
• ORCID
• ResearchGate
• ScholarGPS