When: Oct 16 2024 @ 3:00 PM
Where: Maryland Hall 110
Maryland Hall 110
Categories:

Join the Department of Materials Science and Engineering as we welcome Ryan Hurley, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Hopkins, for his seminar on October 16th at 3pm in Maryland Hall room 110.

Abstract: Quantifying Geomaterial Micromechanics with In-Situ X-ray Probes

Sands, rocks, and concrete play critical roles in our natural and built environments. The mechanical properties of these geomaterials control the progression of geophysical events and the resilience of civil infrastructure. Engineers and scientists have used conventional laboratory tests for decades to evaluate these mechanical properties and construct constitutive models for field predictions. Only recently have in-situ X-ray probes provided the means to test the fundamental micromechanical assumptions which underly these models for geomaterials. In this talk, I will discuss the recent advances in X-ray computed tomography (XRT) and high-energy diffraction microscopy (HEDM) which have enabled a profound shift in our ability to evaluate the micromechanics of geomaterials. I will discuss several recent examples in which we employ novel micromechanical loading devices, XRT, and HEDM to quantify how individual grains in sands, rocks, and concrete interact with one another and how these collective interactions give rise to macroscopic properties and emergent features such as shear bands. The audience will leave the talk with an appreciation of how in-situ X-ray measurements can be leveraged to examine the micromechanics of heterogeneous geomaterials.

Bio: Ryan Hurley

Ryan Hurley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a secondary appointment in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, and a Faculty Fellow of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Before joining JHU in 2018, Ryan received his Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics from Caltech in 2015 and worked as a postdoc in computational geomechanics at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Ryan has received a 2017 Department of Energy’s Secretary’s Appreciation Award, a 2020 NSF CAREER Award, a 2021 Army Education Outreach Program’s Mentor of the Year Award, and a 2022 Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program Award. Ryan’s research interests include studying the deformation and failure mechanisms of granular materials, rocks, and concrete using advanced experimental techniques, such as in-situ x-ray imaging and diffraction, constitutive modeling, and micromechanics.