Wednesday, March 1st, 2023. Time: 12 noon

Hybrid - O.C. Zienkiewicz Conference Room, C1 Building, UPC Campus Nord, Barcelona / Link for online session

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ABSTRACT

Many technologically important and interesting materials possess the capability to undergo transformations of state when stressed mechanically or otherwise. These transformations lead to myriad interesting macroscopic phenomena that allow for the engineering of novel devices ranging from actuators, to fixation devices, to active robots, to super-elastic medical devices, and high damping materials, to name just a few. The models used to describe such systems share an interesting mathematical structure which is closely related to the concept of quasi-convexity in the theory of partial differential equations. In this talk I will present this mathematical framework and discuss its exploitation in the modeling and numerical simulation such phase transforming materials. Specific examples will be shown related to shape memory metals displaying super-elastic properties and liquid crystal elastomers displaying anomalously large dissipation.

SPEAKER CV

Sanjay Govindjee is a Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Horace, Dorothy, and Katherine Johnson Endowed Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1993-2006, 2008-present). His main interests are in theoretical and computational mechanics with an emphasis on micro-mechanics, shape memory alloys, and elastomers. Prior to joining Berkeley he worked as an engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1991-1993) in Livermore, California. He was also Professor of Mechanics at ETH Zürich (2006-2008) in Zürich, Switzerland. He obtained his Ph.D and M.S. from Stanford University, 1991 and 1987. His S.B. is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986.

Dr. Govindjee also serves as a consultant to several governmental agencies and private corporations. He is an active member in major societies such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the US Association for Computational Mechanics. He is also a registered Professional Mechanical Engineer in the state of California.

Noteworthy honors include a National Science Foundation Career Award, the inaugural 1998 Zienkiewicz Prize and Medal, an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship 1999, a Berkeley Chancellor's Professorship 2006-2011, and a guest Professorship at ETH Zürich 2008-2013. In 2015 he was named a Fellow of the US Association for Computational Mechanics. In 2018 he received a Humboldt-Forschungspreis (Humboldt Research Award).

Seminar Programme 2023