Research in our group is primarily geared towards understanding mesoscale mechanisms of plastic deformation in metallic and intermetallic systems. More specifically, we are interested in probing the effect of length and time scales on plasticity. Some of the areas of research interest include: kinetics of plasticity, both creep and high-strain rate deformation, dislocation theory, electron microscopy, tribology of dry contacts and atomistic simulations.

A broad goal of our research is to incorporate understanding of deformation mechanisms in physically-based models. To achieve this, the tools we employ are both experimental (mechanical testing and post-mortem electron microscopy) as well as computational (first principles calculations, molecular dynamics and dislocation dynamics). The ongoing work in our lab broadly falls within one of the following categories:

• Dynamic deformation of both light automotive alloys and bcc metals

• Creep deformation in metallic and intermetallic systems

• Plastic deformation in sliding contacts in ductile metals

Specific details of some of our ongoing projects are provided here