Research

• Multi-scale Computation and Computational Mechanics

  Researchers at U-M are using multi-scale computational methods to research ranging from the molecular basis of soot formation in combustion to the manner in which molecular-level defects affect macroscopic mechanical properties. These methods focus on predicting the mechanical, electrical, and optical behavior of materials and structures from smaller scale models in an accurate and reliable way. Such scale-bridging sometimes involves the inclusion of quantum-mechanical calculations or complex substructure models. Computational mechanics seeks to develop new methods for computer aided prediction of physical phenomenon important to engineering, whether it be how to design the microscale of a structure to optimize its wave propagation response or predicting DNA conformations. ME Researchers leverage the resources of the parallel computing cluster maintained by the Michigan Center for Advanced Computing to perform large scale computations.

• Research Highlights

  Vikram Gavini's Macroscopic Material Behavior from Atomistic Considerations Group Vikram Gavini's research group is developing computational and mathematical tools to perform electronic structure calculations at macroscopic scales, thus paving the way for an accurate understanding of the behavior of defects and their influence on material properties.

  Noel Perkins' Group Noel Perkins' group is using computational rod theory to efficiently model DNA's biological response to loading. Doing so enables us to understand, for example, how DNA forms supercoils (image to right) and how it forms loops when bound to gene-regulating proteins (image below).

  Angela Violi's Nanoparticle Formation in Combustion Group Angela Violi's research group is developing a multiscale computational approach to characterize nanoparticle formation in combustion environments. This approach is key to understanding the atomistic interactions underlying nanoparticle structures and growth

  Krishna Garikipati's Computational Physics Group The Computational Physics Group develops theory and numerical methods for coupled physical phenomena spanning mechanics, thermodynamics, transport, reactions and phase transformations. We focus on problems in biology and materials physics, and draw heavily from the methods of applied mathematics and numerical analysis.

• Researchers

  Rayhaneh Akhavan	Simulation of turbulence
  Bogdan Epureanu	Structural health monitoring and biodynamics
  Krishna Garikipati	Computational Physics Group
  Vikram Gavini	Electronic structure calculations at macro-scale
  Karl Grosh	Biomechanics and electroacoustics
  Greg Hulbert	Phononic material design and computational mechanics
  Hong Im	Combustion and reacting flows
  Noboru Kikuchi	Optimization and homogenization methods
  Wei Lu	Multiscale simulation of materials and structures, self-assembled nanostructures
  Noel Perkins	DNA mechanics and dynamics
  Angela Violi	Multiscale Computational Nanoscience Lab