Brian’s paper published in Engineering Fracture Mechanics

Brian Phung recently implemented a flexible numerical framework to simulate arbitrary 3D crack growth in heterogeneous materials. The framework involves adaptive remeshing on a voxel-based geometrical domain.  Due to its modularity, the crack representation is de-coupled from the crack-evolution rule and material constitutive model (in the uncracked region), providing significant flexibility to investigate new or existing crack-growth criteria. The work has been published in the March 2019 issue of Engineering Fracture Mechanics. To download the article, click here or contact the MMM Lab. This work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Program Grant No. FA 9550-15-1-0172 and...

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Invited talks in Texas and Spain

Prof. Spear recently gave two invited talks: one in Texas and one in Spain. On October 3rd, Spear visited Texas A&M in College Station to give an invited seminar entitled A Multiscale, Multiphysics Modeling Framework to Predict Spatial Variation of Properties in Additive-Manufactured Metals.  The work is a collaboration with Prof. Wenda Tan (Utah) and Prof. Tony Rollett (Carnegie Mellon University). MMM Lab member Carl Herriott is leading the research effort. On October 11th, Spear gave an invited talk at the Society of Engineering Science (SES) conference in Madrid, Spain. Her talk was entitled Multiscale Characterization and Modeling of 3D...

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Congrats, Kyle! Welcome new lab members!

Congratulations to MMM Lab member, Kyle Pierson, for successfully defending his M.S. thesis, entitled “Prediction of Microstructurally Small Fatigue-Crack Growth Using Data-Driven Analysis and Machine Learning.” Kyle has accepted a coveted position at Nvidia. We would also like to welcome a number of new lab members, including M.S. student Quinn Johnson and undergraduate researchers Kristen Carter, Jun Yan (Jimmy) He, Timmanee (Timm) Loveless, and Jackson Baglino. The lab celebrated with lunch at our favorite spot, Porcupine!...

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Presentations this summer by MMM Lab members

Members from the MMM Lab will be giving six presentations throughout the summer at various national and international venues. Below is a list of all presentations going on this summer. US-COMP Biannual Meeting,  Tallahassee, Florida, May 2018:  Reinforcement Learning Combined with Molecular Dynamics Simulations for the Design of Ultra-High-Strength Carbon Nanotube Composites presented by Dr. Aowabin Rahman. Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) Conference, MIT, Boston, Massachusetts, May 2018: Determination of Representative Volume Elements for Small Cracks in Heterogeneous Domains presented by Karen DeMille. 3D Materials Science (3DMS), Elsinore, Denmark, June 2018: 3D Grain Mapping of Open-cell Aluminum Foam by Synthetic-data Fusion...

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US-COMP Website Now Live

The official website for US-COMP — one of two NASA Space Technology Research Institutes — is now live. US-COMP will focus on a Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) approach to accelerate design and deployment of carbon nanotube composites to enable human space missions to Mars. The US-COMP team is led by Prof. Greg Odegard of Michigan Tech and consists of 22 faculty members from 10 different universities, along with partners from AFRL and industry.  The team recently met at the University of Utah to hold a kick-off meeting for the 5-year, $15M institute.  For more information about the institute and...

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Welcome, Prof. Gary Harlow!

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce Distinguished Seminar speaker, Dr. Gary Harlow, Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics at Lehigh University. Dr. Harlow’s talk is entitled Probability and Statistics Issues in Wire Fed Additive Manufacturing of Metals, and will be held on Friday, October 20, at 3:15 PM in 3550 MEK.  The seminar will be followed by a reception with light refreshments....

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MMM Lab Presents Work in Greece and Italy

MMM Lab members recently traveled to Europe to present their latest research results. International Conference on Fracture Brian Phung and Karen DeMille gave talks at the International Conference on Fracture (ICF) in Rhodes, Greece.  Phung’s presentation was entitled A Voxel-Based Meshing Framework for the Simulation of Arbitrary 3D Crack Growth in Heterogeneous Materials. DeMille’s presentation was entitled Determination of Representative Volume Element for Small Cracks in Heterogeneous Domains. Both Phung and DeMille are spending the summer at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH.  Mechanics in Scientific Discovery Prof. Spear gave a talk in Florence, Italy, at a workshop...

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