Short Courses

Multiscale Computational Methods and Applications
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel

Instructors

Wing Kam Liu (Northwestern University)
Jacob Fish (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

Course Description

This short course is sponsored by the NSF Summer Institute on Nano Mechanics and Materials at Northwestern University and funded by the Civil and Mechanical Systems Division, monitored and guided by Dr. Ken P. Chong. The Institute mission is:

• To identify and promote important areas of nanotechnology, and to create new areas of focus which will augment current nanotechnology research and development by universities, industries and government.
• To train future and practicing engineers, scientists and educators in the emerging areas of nanotechnology, nano-engineering, nano-mechanics, and nano-materials.
• To exchange new ideas, disseminate knowledge and provide valuable networking opportunities for researchers and leaders in the field.

The rapid advances in nanotechnology, nanomaterials and nanomechanics offer huge potentials in private industry, homeland security, and national defense. An emphasis on nanoscale design of materials will make our manufacturing technologies and infrastructure more sustainable in terms of reduced energy usage and environmental pollution.

In this short course, we first present the essential tools used by mechanics and materials researchers at the nanoscale. These include selected topics in molecular dynamics, statistical physics, homogenization, FEM and multiple-scale methods based on coupling the atomistic and continuum models. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each modeling technique via research examples. There are certain cases where atomistic and continuum models yield nearly identical results. In some cases, however, atomistic tools are not sufficient for many of the interesting and fundamental problems that arise in multiscale mechanics and materials. Problems spanning length scales have lead to a thrust in the development of multiple-scale methods. The strengths and limitations of the small number of currently available multiple-scale techniques are explored. Emphasis is given to the latest perspective approaches, such as the bridging scale method, multiscale boundary conditions, homogenization, enrichment and Multigrid-like methods.  Finally, we present applications to nano/bio composite materials.Course

Dr. Ken Chong of NSF will open the short course with an overview of the NSF research directions. Six lectures will then be given:

• Introduction to Particle Dynamics and Molecular Dynamics (Liu)
• Introduction to Homogenization (Fish)
• Multiscale Theory, Modeling and Simulation (Liu)
• Concurrent and Information-Passing Multiscale Methods (Fish)
• Multiscale Application: Bio-materials (Liu)
• Multiscale Application: Fatigue/Fragmentation of Composite Materials and Structures (Fish)

Dr. Wing Kam Liu, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University and Director of NSF Summer Institute on Nano Mechanics and Materials, received his B.S. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1976; his M.S. in 1977 and Ph.D. in 1981 both from Caltech. His research activities include concurrent and hierarchical bridging scale methods for computational mechanics, nano mechanics and materials, multi-scale analysis, and computational biology. Selected Liu's honors include the Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, the Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal and the Melville Medal, all from ASME; the Thomas J. Jaeger Prize by the International Association for Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology, and the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, the Computational Structural Mechanics Award and Computational Mechanics Award from USACM and IACM, respectively. In 2004, he received the JSME Computational Mechanics Award. Liu serves on both the executive committee of the ASME applied mechanics division (Chair 2005) and the International Association for Computational Mechanics. He was the past president of USACM. Liu is cited by Institute for Scientific Information as one of the most highly cited, influential researchers in Engineering, and an original member, highly cited researchers database. He is the Editor of Computational Mechanics and the International Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Honorary Editor of International Journal of Computational Methods, Honorary Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and Numerical Simulation, and serves on numerous editorial boards. Dr. Liu has acted as a consultant to the many organizations, including Argonne National Laboratory; Battelle Columbus Laboratories; Grumman Aerospace Corporation; Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Centro Ricerche Fiat, Italy; Mitsubishi, Heavy Industries, Japan; Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan; Law Offices of John Scott Hoff, P. C; Fel-Pro Inc., Illinois; Snap-On Tools, Kenosha; Bell and Howell, Illinois; Sandia National Laboratory; and Ball Aerospace.

Dr. Jacob Fish, The Rosalind and John J. Redfern, Jr. ’33 Chaired Professor in Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Fish has over 20 years of experience (both industry and academia) in the field of multiscale computational engineering and science. He is a recipient of the 2005 USACM Computational Structural Mechanics Award given “in recognition for his contributions to multiscale computational methods”.  For his "significant contributions to computational science and engineering" he received 2003 Rensselaer School of Engineering Research Award. Dr. Fish has written over 120 journal articles and book chapters, two of which have won the best paper awards. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineering and serves on the editorial board of numerous journals. He is the past President of United States Association for Computational Mechanics, past member of the National Research Council for the Air and Ground Vehicle Technology and currently serves on the IUTAM Working Party on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics. Dr. Fish received numerous NSF awards, contracts from NASA Langley, Lockheed, Sikorski, ALCOA,   Northrop-Grumman, General Electric, General Motors, Allison Engines, AFOSR, ONR, SANDIA and DARPA. Dr. Fish is currently directing the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) program at Rensselaer.