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SUMMARY:MechE Honorary Lecture: A Random Walk Through Random Materials
DTSTART:20231212T180000
DTEND:20231212T190000
DTSTAMP:20260511T081304Z
UID:5548dd46b2cd1ce9caaf9f98937bae0b259a8415d4406f6ae517e82b
CATEGORIES:Inaugural lectures - Honorary Lecture
DESCRIPTION:Prof. William Curtin\, Laboratory for Multiscale Mechanics Mo
 deling (LAMMM)\, Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IGM)\, School of E
 ngineering (STI)\, EPFL\nAbstract: In mechanics of materials\, we frequen
 tly deal with heterogeneous materials such as fiber-reinforced composites\
 , rocks\, polycrystalline alloys\, and toughened ceramics.  As Engineers
 \, we often need to have a macroscopic description of the material\, leadi
 ng us toward methods of “homogenization” where all the details of the 
 heterogeneity are swept away inside a “homogenized model”.  However\
 , many important material properties are determined by defects in the mate
 rial\, and the defect behaviour is controlled by local details that cannot
  be averaged away.  This unfortunate feature arises in fracture\, where 
 the stress field at the tip of a crack is diverging toward infinity\, and 
 in metal plasticity\, where the stress field of a dislocation is also dive
 rging toward infinity.  The interplay between defect singularities and l
 ocal material structure/properties presents a rich conceptual area with im
 mense practical importance.\nIn this presentation I first stroll through a
  sequence of studies in the mechanics of materials in the quest to disenta
 ngle the interplay between “randomness” in local structure and macrosc
 opic mechanical performance such as strength and toughness.  This random
  walk through random materials culminates in the study of a new class of a
 lloys\, High Entropy Alloys (HEAs).  HEAs consists of many elemental com
 ponents that are essentially randomly mixed at the atomic scale\, such as 
 the alloys MoNbTaVW (an equal mixture of Molybdenum\, Niobium\, Tantalum\,
  Vandium\, and Tungsten) and PdPtIrRhCuNi (an equal mixture of Palladium\,
  Platinum\, Iridium\, Rhodium\, Copper\, and Nickel).   In HEAs\, heter
 ogeneity is at the very scale of the atoms and so is always smaller than t
 he scale of any of the defects that control the material behaviour.  Thi
 s opens up a vast world of complexity in describing how defects form\, mov
 e\, and interact in these alloys possessing atomic-scale randomness.  I 
 will show a wide range of different defects/situations where this randomne
 ss fundamental affects alloy behaviour.  But it is not enough to underst
 and the general phenomena.  Important technological process is made thro
 ugh the formation of theoretical models that are sufficiently predictive t
 o guide experimental materials scientists toward discovery of the most pro
 mising alloys for technological applications.  Conceptual frameworks and
  theories that enable guided material selection are thus discussed as we s
 troll along.\n\n\n\n\nBiography: Professor Curtin earned a 4 yr. ScB/ScM 
 degree in Physics from Brown University in 1981 and a PhD in theoretical p
 hysics from Cornell University in 1986.  He worked as staff researcher a
 t British Petroleum until 1993 when he joined Virginia Tech.  In 1998 he
  returned to Brown as Full Professor in the Solid Mechanics group\, and wa
 s appointed Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor in 2006.  He joined Ecole 
 Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne as the Director of the Institute of Mec
 hanical Engineering in 2011 and officially as Full Professor in 2012.  H
 e retired from EPFL at the end of 2022 and rejoined Brown as Full Professo
 r in 2023.  His research successes include predictive theories of hydrog
 en storage in amorphous metals\, strength and toughness of fiber composite
 s\, dynamic strain aging and ductility in lightweight Al and Mg metal allo
 ys\, solute strengthening of metal alloys including high entropy alloys\, 
 and hydrogen embrittlement of metals\, along with innovative multiscale mo
 deling methods to tackle many of these problems.  Professor Curtin was a
  Guggenheim Fellow in 2005-06\, was Editor-in-Chief of “Modeling and Sim
 ulation in Materials Science and Engineering” from 2006-2016\, was the i
 naugural winner of the Distinguished Career Award from the Multiscale Mech
 anics Modeling community in 2022\, and received the George Irwin Gold Meda
 l from the International Conference on Fracture in 2023.  He has publish
 ed over 300 journal papers that have received over 26500 citations with an
  h-index of 87 (Google Scholar)\, and has been the Principal Investigator 
 on over $36M of funded research projects.\n\n\n\n\nRegister here.
LOCATION:SG 1138 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SG%201138 https://epfl.zoom.u
 s/j/63557901271
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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