Computational methods are used to analyze and design composite materials and polycrystals. Current areas of focus include nano-composites, light-weight metals and the resolution of material structure at the nano-scale.
Brigham Young University has been at the forefront of research and development for Orientation Imaging Microscopy for 15 years. OIM was developed at BYU, and has been adopted at ~500 laboratories in some 50 countries. Applications of OIM led to many new developments in metal and ceramic alloys, semiconductors, super-conductors and other applications, as evidenced by more than 4,000 citations in the published literature. Current research is focused on high resolution, cross-correlation-based methods for recovery of local lattice orientation and elastic strain.
In collaboration with Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), a spectral method for design of material microstructures has been developed over the past decade. Two distinctive elements of the method emerge: (1) a mathematical description for the microstructure hull, which comprises the set of all physically-realizable microstructures associated with a chosen set of homogenization relationships; and (2) the properties closure, representing the theoretical set of all possible properties combinations among all possible microstructures. Current research includes introducing barriers to reverse engineering in the microstructure, design tools for titanium armor applications, and extension of the spectral theories to fracture, fatigue and formability.
