Research
Our research aims to understand the link between a material's microstructure (i.e., all features and mechanisms at small scales) and its effective properties (i.e., its behavior and performance at macroscopic engineering scales). This includes both conventional materials such as metals, ceramics, polymers and composites as well as novel metamaterials and architected materials with an as-designed architecture across various scales. Common goal is to provide the understanding and computational tools required to improve, to optimize, and to design material properties according to engineering demand. For conventional materials (like magnesium alloys or ferroelectric ceramics), this is achieved by optimizing the processing route and material utilization. For metamaterials (such as truss lattices and spinodal structures), properties result from structural architecture on smaller scales to be optimized.
Our research lives at the intersection of mechanics, materials science, and physics (and related areas) and relies on theory, simulations, and experiments. In order to bridge across length and time scales, we employ theories of homogenization and coarse-graining as well as constitutive modeling for an advance theoretical description of material behavior. To simulate, predict, and optimize material behavior, we develop our own computational codes (e.g., for finite element analysis, phase field modeling, discrete numerical analisys of structural networks, atomistic and coarse-grained atomistic simulations) and apply those to problems of engineering interest. The integration of code development with applications and performance analysis results in powerful computational toolsets for the exploration of the available material property space. In many scenarios like coarse-grained atomistics, we need to combine techniques and theories in an interdisciplinary fashion and break new grounds towards a multiscale description that starts on the atomic scale and ascends all the way to typical engineering scales visible to the naked eye. Experiments are an important complement to theory and simulations and allow us to calibrate and validate our models and to improve our understanding of the underlying physics and mechanics.
We invite you to learn more about our ongoing and past research projects on these webpages: