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Challenging Research Thrusts

Below are some areas that I believe will be particularly fruitful and significant to pursue in the next decade:

  • MD, discrete dislocation, and crystal plasticity studies of yield criteria, flow, and work hardening
  • More complete linkage of discrete dislocation theory and Nye tensor concepts to generalized continuum field models,, including overlap with coarse-grained atomistic simulations
  • Statistical micromechanics and kinetics of nonequilibrium microstructure evolution
  • Superposition of electron backscatter imaging, digital image correlation, and in situ microscopy with simulated fields of view for cyclic and monotonic plasticity to understand the role of microstructure and improve models
  • Origins of scale effects, including statistical inhomogeneity and configurational effects of dislocations
  • Accelerated MD, coarse-grained MD, and coupled atomistic-continuum methods, including multicomponent alloys and
  • Homogenization and localization concepts for evolving hierarchical, heterogeneous microstructures
  • Self-organization and scaling laws in grain subdivision, slip and damage evolution in single crystals and polycrystals
  • Multiscale nature of the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient and defect field mechanics
  • The role of grain boundaries in polycrystals in multiscale modeling and crystal plasticity
  • Fully coupled chemomechanical behaviors in energy materials and environmental interactions with structural material responses
  • Plasticity in materials design
  • Uncertainty quantification in multiscale materials modeling and materials design
  • Constitutive model calibration and model fusion using machine learning strategies

 

You might also be interested in knowing my views over the years on where research in metal plasticity is headed. Please see:

  • McDowell, D.L., “Materials Design: A Useful Research Focus for Inelastic Behavior of Structural Metals,” Special Issue of the Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics, Prospects of Mesomechanics in the 21st Century: Current Thinking on Multiscale Mechanics Problems, eds. G.C. Sih and V.E. Panin, Vol. 37, 2001, pp. 245-259.
  • McDowell, D.L., “Viscoplasticity of Heterogeneous Metallic Materials,” Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports, Vol. 62, Issue 3, 2008, pp. 67-123.
  • McDowell, D.L. and Dunne, F.P.E., “Microstructure-Sensitive Computational Modeling of Fatigue Crack Formation,” International Journal of Fatigue, Special Issue on Emerging Frontiers in Fatigue, Vol. 32, No. 9, 2010, pp. 1521-1542.
  • McDowell, D.L., “A Perspective on Trends in Multiscale Plasticity,” International Journal of Plasticity, special issue in honor of David L. McDowell, Vol. 26, No. 9, 2010, pp. 1280-1309.
  • Castelluccio, G.M., Musinski, W.D. and McDowell, D.L., “Recent Development in Assessing Microstructure-Sensitive Early Stage Fatigue of Polycrystals,” Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cossms.2014.03.001.
  • McDowell, D.L. and Kalidindi, S.R., “The Materials Innovation Ecosystem: A Key Enabler for the Materials Genome Initiative,” MRS Bulletin, Vol. 41, 2016, pp. 326-335.
  • Kalidindi, S.R., Medford, A.J., and McDowell, D.L., “Vision for Data and Informatics in the Future Materials Innovation Ecosystem,” JOM, Vol. 68, No. 8, 2016, pp. 2126-2137.

 

Books or Book Chapters:

  • Tschopp, M.A., Spearot, D.E., and McDowell, D.L., “Influence of Grain Boundary Structure on Dislocation Nucleation in FCC Metals,” Dislocations in Solids, A Tribute to F.R.N. Nabarro, Ed. J.P. Hirth, Elsevier Publ., Vol. 14, 2008, pp. 43-139.
  • McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure-Sensitive Modeling and Simulation of Fatigue,” ASM Handbook on Fundamentals of Modeling for Metals Processing, Handbook Vol. 22A, ASM International, 2009, ISBN 13:978-1-61503-001-0.
  • McDowell, D.L., Panchal, J.H., Choi, H.-J., Seepersad, C.C., Allen, J.K. and Mistree, F., Integrated Design of Multiscale, Multifunctional Materials and Products, 1st Edition, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2010 (392 pages), ISBN: 978-1-85617-662-0.
  • McDowell, D.L. and Backman, D., “Simulation-Assisted Design and Accelerated Insertion of Materials,” Ch. 19 in Computational Methods for Microstructure-Property Relationships, Eds. S. Ghosh and D. Dimiduk, Springer, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4419-0642-7.
  • McDowell, D.L., “Critical Path Issues in ICME,” Models, Databases, and Simulation Tools Needed for the Realization of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering, Proc. Symposium held at Materials Science and Technology 2010, Oct. 18-20, Houston, Tx, S.M. Arnold and T.T. Wong, eds., ASM International, 2011, pp. 31-37.
  • McDowell, D.L., “Connecting Lower and Higher Scales in Crystal Plasticity Modeling,” In: Andreoni, W., Yip, S. (eds) Handbook of Materials Modeling. Springer, Cham, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42913-7_17-1.
  • McDowell, D.L., “Multiscale Modeling of Interfaces, Dislocations, and Dislocation Field Plasticity,” in Mesoscale Models: From micro-physics to macro-interpretation, S. Mesarovic et al. (eds), CISM-Springer, Springer Science  Business Media, CISM International Centre for Mechanical Sciences 587., pp. 195-297,  2019, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-94186-8_5.