Mallikarjunaiah Muddamallappa
Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi, TX·Mathematics & Statistics
Brittle cracks can grow suddenly and dangerously in ships, large structures, pressurized airplane cabins and orthopedic implants. Predicting how such cracks form and spread is a long-standing challenge in applied mathematics and engineering.
- Fields
Mathematics & Statistics
Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
brittle fracture
fracture mechanics
crack propagation
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Formulate a regularized phase-field model of brittle fracture that uses strain-limiting constitutive relations, avoiding the unrealistic infinite strain predicted by linear models at crack tips.
- Develop fully discrete finite element methods for quasi-static and dynamic fracture, posed as constrained minimization of bulk elastic energy plus crack surface energy.
- Build parallel finite element solvers and test them on classical solid-mechanics benchmarks, with convergence analysis using manufactured solutions.
More about the research
Many existing fracture models describe the material with a linear rule between stress and strain. That rule predicts infinite strain at the crack tip, which is physically impossible and a known logical inconsistency.
Why it matters
More physically consistent fracture models could improve predictions of when brittle materials fail in structures, ships, airplane cabins and orthopedic implants. The models and numerical tools may help engineers study cracking in high-strength materials such as gum metals and titanium alloys.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christopher Larsen
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA·Mathematics & Statistics
Prove that equilibrium states exist satisfying a new variational principle for fracture, one that isolates crack propagation and remains compatible with all applied forces, including body loads such as gravity.
Robert Lipton
Louisiana State University, LA·Mathematics & Statistics
Formulate fracture as a mathematically well-posed initial value problem, with displacement evolving under Newton's second law, so that damage and crack patterns emerge as the outcome of given starting displacements, velocities and time-varying boundary loads.
Daniele Panozzo
New York University, NY·Computer Science
Develop dPolyFEM, an open-source modular framework for differentiable simulation, which computes how simulation results change with inputs, for elastic objects with large deformations, contact and friction.
The school
Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi: 2 labs on PI Pages, $52M a year on research, 37 research doctorates a year.
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