Please join us in congratulating Professors Michael Falk (MS&E) and Michael Shields (CE) on their National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant, which was awarded on September 15, 2014.
With this grant, the team will work with Harvard Professor Chris Rycroft to develop predictive computational models of deformation and failure of a class of materials known as amorphous solids, particularly focusing on structural metallic glasses.
The research, entitled “Connecting Atomistic and Continuum Amorphous Solid Mechanics via Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics,” will focus on translating information from molecular dynamics simulations, which track each atom in the material, to computationally efficient models capable of investigating material response on larger scales. In this way the research seeks to harness the physics at the atomic scale to model structures on scales of practical engineering interest. Atomic scale representations and larger scale theories will be compared to ensure that the larger scale theories are statistically consistent and adequately verified. The resulting models will be used for investigating failure and fracture.
The insights gained and methods employed in this research have the potential to transform the way in which length-scales are spanned in the study of the mechanics of materials for amorphous structures as well as for materials more generally.
The grant also supports educational initiatives at both Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University. The research will address the critical need to integrate computational methods into the core Materials Science and Engineering curriculum while also engaging elementary school students in high-need urban schools through the NSF funded STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) project.
A synopsis of the award can be found here.