Materials in Extreme Environments Modeling
Our research focuses on material behavior at high pressures and temperatures as well as the study of material response to high strain rates of deformation, such as those produced by shock waves. Advances in large-scale computing and computational speeds have led to an increase in the accuracy and predictive power of simulations of material phenomena. Employing a variety of computational techniques, we investigate problems in shock-induced plasticity, material strength and fracture, stress-induced phase transformation and melting. We also work on developing and testing classical interatomic force-field models for modeling material behavior at extreme environments.
Research Group
Dr. Ramon Ravelo, Associate Professor
Ph.D. Student: Madawa Abeywardhana
M.S. Students: Punam Ghimire, Sarzina Hossain
Undergraduate Students: Anthony Vasquez, Celia Garcia
Ph.D. Student: Madawa Abeywardhana
M.S. Students: Punam Ghimire, Sarzina Hossain
Undergraduate Students: Anthony Vasquez, Celia Garcia
Current Projects
- Software co-design for high performance computing.
- Computational studies of strain rate dependence of material strength.
- Stress-induced solid-solid phase transitions.
Publications
- D.R. Tramontina, P. Erhart, T.C. Germann, J.A. Hawreliak, A. Higginbotham, N. Park, R. Ravelo, A. Stukowski, M.J. Suggit, Y. Tang, J.S. Wark and E.M. Bringa, Molecular dynamics simulations of shock-induced plasticity in tantalum. Journal of High Energy Density Physics, 10, 9. (2014).
- R. Ravelo, T.C. Germann, O. Guerrero, Q. An and B.L. Holian, Shock-induced plasticity in tantalum single crystals: Interatomic potentials and large-scale molecular-dynamics simulations. Physical Review B, 88, 134101, (2013)
- K. Kadau, F. Cherne, R. Ravelo and T.C. Germann Shock-induced phase transformations in gallium single crystals by atomistic methods. Physical Review B, 88, 144108, (2013).
- V. Levitas and R. Ravelo, “Virtual melting as a new mechanism of stress relaxation under high strain rate loading”, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 109, 13204-13207 (2012).