Category: Recent Activity

Recent Activity

MMM Lab Represents at TMS Annual Meeting

MMM Lab members recently presented work at the TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The following presentations included MMM Lab members: Predicting Microstructurally Sensitive Fatigue-crack Path in WE43 Magnesium Using High-fidelity Numerical Modeling and Three-dimensional Experimental Characterization: Brian Phung, Duncan Greeley (Univ. of Michigan), Mohammadreza Yaghoobi (Univ. of Michigan), John Allison (Univ. of Michigan), Ashley Spear Accelerating Microstructurally Small Crack Growth Predictions in Three-dimensional Microstructures Using Deep Learning: Vignesh Babu Rao, Brian Phung, Bjorn Johnsson, Ashley Spear Predicting Microstructure-sensitive Fracture Behavior in AM IN625 Using a Damage-enabled Elasto-viscoplastic FFT Framework: Ashley Spear, Carter Cocke, Brian Phung, Laura Ziegler,...

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Congratulations to Dr. Karen DeMille and Carter Cocke!

We are pleased to announce the graduation of MMM Lab members Karen DeMille and Carter Cocke. Karen DeMille successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled Establishment of Representative Volume Elements for Microstructurally Small Cracks Using Numerical Simulation and Machine Learning.  In her dissertation, she explores the question: “What is the minimum volume of microstructure needed to accurately capture the fields around a microstructurally small crack?”.  Since graduating, she has been working as a Research Mechanical Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).  Congratulations, Dr. DeMille!                   Carter Cocke successfully defended his M.S....

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MMM Lab Awarded 1st Place NIST AM-Bench Challenge

The MMM Lab received a first-place award in the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Additive Manufacturing Benchmark Test Series, a competition that enables teams to test their simulations against additive manufacturing benchmark test data. The team included graduate students Carter Cocke, Brian Phung, Laura Ziegler, Elliott Marsden, and Vignesh Babu Rao. In the team’s specific challenge, titled “Subcontinuum Mesoscale Tensile Test,” all the competing teams were given a set of materials characterization data for a small sample of 3D-printed Inconel 625, a type of nickel alloy. They were then asked to make blind predictions of the mechanical (stress-strain)...

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Work with Michigan Tech featured in Materials Today!

Our recent paper published in Composites Science and Technology was featured in Materials Today! The work is a collaboration with researchers from Michigan Tech and demonstrates the use of machine learning to accelerate failure predictions of carbon nanotube-polymer interfaces using training data from molecular dynamics simulations. The research is supported by the NASA Space Technology Research Institute US-COMP. Click here to read the news article....

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ML+MD to predict strength of CNT-polymer interface

Abstract Modern aerospace applications require lightweight materials with exceptionally high strength and stiffness. Carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced composites have great potential in addressing these requirements. However, one critical factor limiting the potential of CNT-reinforced composites is the limited load transfer capability between CNTs through a polymer matrix, which arises due to low CNT-polymer interfacial shear strength at a molecular scale. While molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can be employed to investigate the CNT-polymer interface, such simulations are computationally expensive. It is thus intractable to explore a sufficiently large design space for interface modifications and optimization using MD simulations alone, motivating the...

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MMM Lab represents at TMS annual meeting

MMM Lab members recently presented work at the TMS Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA. The following presentations included MMM Lab members: Determination of Representative Volume Elements for Small Cracks in Heterogeneous Domains via Convolutional Neural Networks: Karen DeMille, Ashley Spear Predicting Crack Location Using a Radial Distribution Function as a Unique Descriptor of Pore Networks: John Erickson, Aowabin Rahman, Ashley Spear Characterization of Fatigue Short Crack Growth in Rare-earth Magnesium Alloy WE43 using High Energy X-ray Diffraction Microscopy: Duncan Greeley (Univ. of Michigan), Jacob Adams (Univ. of Michigan), Peter Kenesei (Argonne National Laboratory), Ashley Spear, John Allison (Univ. of...

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Class of 20 Students Participates in the Sandia Fracture Challenge

A recent article in the International Journal of Fracture details the results and experience of a class’ participation in the Third Sandia Fracture Challenge (SFC3). In the spring semester of 2017, 20 University of Utah graduate students who were enrolled in a course on Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics (offered by Prof. Ashley Spear) participated in the Challenge, in which all participants were tasked with predicting ductile fracture in a 3D-printed stainless steel specimen geometry. The participants were provided with data from Sandia National Labs to help calibrate their models and were asked to provide local and global measures from...

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Podcast episode features our work on infant skull fracture

In a recent episode of the podcast Just Science, Dr. Brittany Coats was interviewed about our collaborative DOJ Grant (2016-DN-BX-0160) on predicting infant skull fracture due to impact.  Contributors on the project include MMM Lab member, Jun Yan “Jimmy” He.  Check it out! Listen to podcast Just Science is a podcast hosted by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE), which “is committed to improving the practice and strengthening the impact of forensic science through rigorous technology corroboration, evaluation, and adoption; effective knowledge transfer and education; and comprehensive dissemination of best practices and guidelines to...

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Spring activities in the MMM Lab

Check out the latest activities from the MMM Lab. April 19th: Nadia hosted a spring party for the MMM Lab. Activities included corn hole, spikeball, ladder ball, and an egg hunt. April 12th: Post-doctoral researcher, Nadia Kouraytem, presented work from the MMM Lab at the APS Users Science Meeting at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab. Her presentation was entitled “Microscale characterization and modeling of additively manufactured metals”. On the same day, Prof. Spear gave a seminar at Ohio State University on “A multi-scale, multi-physics modeling framework to predict spatial variation of properties in additive-manufactured metals”. April...

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