MAE Seminars: Recent Developments in Isogeometric Shells: From Architected Structures to Laminated Composites Under Shock

Abstract: While Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) has significantly impacted much of computational mechanics, one area that has benefited greatly from IGA research is computational methods for shell structures. Because geometrically complex, smooth surfaces are naturally represented in CAD systems, much of that technology could be directly employed in the discretization of existing shell theories, with increased accuracy and robustness in general-purpose nonlinear applications relative to traditional FEA representations. In addition, the increased smoothness of CAD surface representation (by means of B-Splines and their rational and unstructured variants) enabled the formulation, and use in general-purpose nonlinear applications, of thin shell theories previously unattainable in traditional FEA. Many more developments followed, making shells some of the most mature of IGA technologies today and a prime candidate for implementation in commercial FEA codes. This presentation will focus on key recent developments in IGA for thin shell structures and show a novel application of IGA to the modeling of architected materials and structures as well as modeling of laminated fiber-reinforced composites in the undersea blast environments. 

Bio: Yuri Bazilevs is the E. Paul Sorensen Professor in the School of Engineering at Brown University, where he was the lead and executive committee representative of the Mechanics of Solids and Structures group. He was previously a professor and vice chair in the Structural Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego. Yuri’s research interests are in computational mechanics, with emphasis on the modeling and simulation in solids and structures, fluids and their coupling in HPC environments. For his research contributions, Yuri received many awards and honors, including the 2018 Walter E. Huber Research Prize from the ASCE, the 2020 Gustus L. Larson Award from the ASME and the Computational Mechanics Award from the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM). He is included in the lists of Highly Cited Researchers, both in the engineering (2015-2018) and computer science (2014-2019) categories. Yuri recently completed his service as the president of the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) and as the chairman of the Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME. He currently serves on the U.S. National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNCTAM) and on the board of directors of the USACM.