ABSTRACT:

Predicting and controlling the structure-property-processing relations in materials play important roles in design and manufacturing of engineering parts and structures. With the recent progress in supercomputing, computational modeling and simulations have become commanding modules in studying these relations in materials, which also enable design of new generation of materials in a faster pace. In this seminar, different mesoscale computational models based on the phase field theory and molecular dynamics simulations will be presented to quantitatively simulate nano and microstructures, and determine mechanical and physical properties of materials. Examples will include models for solidification microstructures of pure and multi-component lightweight metals, and models for oxidation, solid state phase transformation and hydride precipitation in nuclear energy materials. Lastly, a new phase field model connected to density functional theory and molecular dynamics will be presented, which naturally incorporates elasticity, plasticity, and nucleation and evolution of defects in modeling crystallization and grain growth of materials.

BIO:

Dr. Mohsen Asle Zaeem is the Roberta and G. Robert Couch Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at Missouri University of Science & Technology (Rolla, Missouri S&T). Dr. Zaeem received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Shiraz University, Iran, and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University (2010). Prior to joining Missouri S&T, Dr. Zaeem was a postdoctoral fellow and an assistant research professor in the Computational Manufacturing and Design group within the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University. Dr. Zaeem has published 35 peer-reviewed journal articles in prestigious journals, such as Acta Materialia, International Journal of Plasticity, Physical Review B, Materials Letters, and Journal of Computational Physics. He is currently serving as an editor of the Journal of Metals, and he is also a member of the editorial board of Mathematical Problems in Engineering and International Journal of Materials Engineering and Technology. Dr. Zaeem is a member of technical committees of different professional societies, including TMS Computational Materials Science and Engineering Committee, TMS Solidification Committee, TMS Phase Transformation Committee, TMS Young Professionals Committee, ASME Manufacturing Engineering Division, ASME Committee on Computing in Applied Mechanics, and AIST Metallurgy-Steelmaking and Casting Technology Committee. Dr. Zaeem is the recipient of the 2015 TMS Young Leader Professional Development Award, the 2015 Junior Faculty Award from Mines and Metallurgy Academy, and the 2015 ACS New Investigator Award. Dr. Zaeem’s research focuses on developing reliable computational tools to determine structure-property-processing relations in materials in order to improve mechanical and other properties of materials for different applications. He is particularly interested in studying solidification, grain formation, recrystallization, and solid state phase transformation in lightweight and energy related materials. ​