The faculty in the Mechanics of Materials Research Group conduct research and offer coursework involving topics at the interface of materials science and mechanics of materials. A major theme is the incorporation of materials structure-property relations in approaches suitable for engineering analysis. A combination of experimental mechanics, analytical and computational micromechanics, and theoretical developments are employed to develop these approaches.

Research areas range in focus from the nanoscale to the macroscopic level, and include molecular dynamics simulations of nanowires and grain boundary interfaces, methods for transitioning between discrete atomistics and continuum fields/solutions, mechanics of defects in crystals, scale dependent elastoviscoplastic and strength models of polycrystals from nanocrystalline range to engineering structural alloys, scale-dependent bimaterial interfacial fracture, nucleation and growth of distributed damage in monolithic and composite materials, physically-based multiscale constitutive models for deformation, fatigue and fracture behavior of heterogeneous materials, creepfatigue-environment interaction in failure of high temperature materials, microstructure effects in fretting and contact fatigue, structure-property relations in polymers, systems and durability modeling of solid oxide fuel cells, modeling of metal forming processes, processing and mechanics of cellular metals, systems-based materials design, and behavior of ferroelectric, shape memory and other classes of smart materials.

Research Area Group Chair

Ting Zhu - ting.zhu@me.gatech.edu