2025-04-09 09:00:00
The Mach Conference program is largely comprised of symposia that are organized around specific topics of interest, each of which contains one or more sessions. Symposia for the 2025 Mach Conference will be selected from proposals submitted by organizers and will be announced at a later date.
2025 Mach Conference symposia are listed below:
Organizers: Debjoy Mallick (ARL), Suraj Ravindran (UMN), Ankit Srivastava (TAMU), Justin Wilkerson (TAMU)
Summary: High strain-rate characterization techniques have traditionally been a major bottleneck in the discovery of novel materials exhibiting unprecedented performance under dynamic loading. Put another way, new materials are being synthesized at such a pace that the dynamic mechanical behavior of the vast majority of these materials go untested. In an ideal world, a few dozen high strain-rate experiments would be conducted at strain rates ranging from 10^3 to 10^9/s for each and every promising new material. To significantly increase the fraction of novel materials whose dynamic properties are known, there is a critical need for advanced high strain-rate experimental techniques that fully harness automation. Moreover, small-scale dynamic testing has the added advantage of enabling dozens of tests to be conducted on relatively small volumes of materials, which is particularly valuable when large quantities of materials are expensive or difficult to obtain. Our symposium seeks talks on novel experimental techniques to address these shortcomings, e.g. automated and/or miniature Kolsky bar testing, dynamic nano-indentation, laser-driven flyer experiments, laser-induced projectile impact testing (LIPIT), and high-throughput gas gun testing.
Organizers: Arezoo Zare (WSU), Jacob M. Diamond (JHU)
Summary: Characterization of material properties in extreme environments has been traditionally very resource intensive and as a result the large datasets needed to establish structure-property-performance relationships in these conditions are often lacking. Furthermore, while post-mortem characterization provides valuable insights into the mechanisms that underline materials performance, it can miss dynamic and transient phenomena that occur in these far-from-equilibrium conditions. This symposium focuses on experimental developments in characterization of material properties of condensed matter at concurrent extreme pressures and temperatures particularly under dynamic and shock loading, extremely high or cryogenic temperatures, extremely corrosive environments particularly under molten salt and liquid metals. Topics of interest include:
Organizers: Theocharis Baxevanis (University of Houston), Tian (Tim) Chen (University of Houston), Shailendra P. Joshi (University of Houston)
Summary: Mechanical metamaterials are artificial materials designed to exhibit exotic properties rarely found in nature. Their unique properties stem from their geometric arrangement–usually periodic although disorder may be incorporated to improve functionalities–rather than composition. In the last decade, advances in additive manufacturing techniques enabled the manufacturing of intricate mechanical metamaterials, revolutionizing the field.
This symposium aims at providing a forum for investigators to discuss and disseminate novel theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions on the mechanics and design of mechanical metamaterials and their engineering applications across various stiffness-, strength-, length- and time-scales. Examples of topics in this symposium include (but are not limited to):
• design algorithms including data-driven and optimization techniques
• nonlinear mechanics and failure of lattice materials, foams, origami, kirigami, tessellations, and tensegrities
• disordered mechanical metamaterials including granular materials
• structural, acoustic, thermal, mechanical, biomechanical, electromagnetic, and other applications
• advances in 3D/4D printing of metamaterials
• multi-stability, reconfigurability, tunability and other interesting functional properties
Organizers: Mohmad Mohsin Thakur (JHU), Brett Kuwik (JHU), Lei Yang (JHU), Sohanjit Ghosh (JHU)
Summary: Geological and infrastructural materials, such as soils, rocks, and concrete feature ubiquitously in civilian and military infrastructural facilities wherein they are subjected to extreme events such as shocks and impacts. The ability to robustly predict the material response in such events requires understanding the material response at high strain rates, high temperatures, and high confining pressures. The response of these materials under extreme conditions has been studied indirectly through macroscale experiments and continuum-scale simulations. However, these traditional methods are limited in providing a comprehensive understanding of the deformation and failure mechanisms which can only be fully captured by addressing the underlying microscale behavior across time scales. Recent advancements in diagnostic techniques, including time-resolved in-situ x-ray phase contrast imaging, high-speed digital image correlation, flash x-ray imaging, and spectroscopy, have enabled high-resolution measurements of extreme responses in these materials. These developments offer a unique opportunity to develop and validate multiscale numerical models of these materials. This mini-symposium invites contributions highlighting advances in experimental and numerical approaches to quantitatively characterize and predict the extreme response of geological and infrastructural materials. We particularly encourage submissions that leverage high-fidelity experimental data to validate numerical simulations. The aim is to provide a platform for discussing cutting-edge experimental techniques and innovative modeling strategies to deepen our understanding of materials in extreme conditions.
Organizers: Michael Shields (JHU). Raymundo Arroyave (TAMU), Chris Haines (U.S. Army Research Laboratory)
Summary: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) present powerful avenues for exploring novel materials for applications in extreme conditions. Such approaches present considerable opportunity, especially when coupled with high-throughput experimental approaches that allow larger and richer datasets, computational tools that capture increasingly complex material behavior, and data infrastructure for real-time collaboration driving towards new materials. This mini-symposium, organized by the ARL-funded High-throughput Materials Discovery for Extreme Conditions (HTMDEC) team, will include contributions related to high-throughput synthesis and processing, ML-enhanced computational modeling, AI- and data-driven materials design, high-throughput materials characterization and testing, and the integration of some or all of these tools. We will solicit contributions from researchers who are part of the HTMDEC program but also from researchers outside the centers who are doing interesting work in this area.
Organizers: Justin Moreno (JHU), Matt Shaeffer (JHU), Jacob Rogers (Texas A&M)
Summary: Materials and structures subjected to high-velocity and hypervelocity impact can experience extreme deformation, erosion, fracture, fragmentation, heating, melting, vaporization, and even sublimation. This symposium focuses on addressing the critical knowledge gaps in the fundamental understanding of the complex multi-physics phenomena that emerge during ultra-high strain rate (>10^6 (1/s) events. These research topics are central to the themes explored at this conference, particularly in advancing the modeling and experimental investigation of material behavior under such intense conditions. We welcome contributions from researchers across academia, government, and industry that explore both the experimental and theoretical aspects of hypervelocity impact phenomena, ultra-high strain rate material behavior, and their related fields.
Organizers: Noah Wade (JHU), Ashwini Gupta (JHU), Lori Graham-Brady (JHU)
Summary: Adopting Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies within material science has immense potential to rapidly improve our material design, testing, characterization, and modeling capabilities. This mini-symposium explores the transformative role of ML and AI in this field. Topics will include data-driven approaches, such as Deep Neural Networks (DNN) and Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN), for materials characterization and/or design, computational modeling, multi-scale modeling for prediction of material properties and behavior, advances in uncertainty quantification, and the integration of AI with experimental data for real-time insights.
Organizers: Ghatu Subhash (University of Florida)
Summary: In recent years, there has been a significant increase in research efforts to model material behavior under a variety of loading conditions using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning methods. However, methods to detect defects and damage using similar approach are not yet popular. This symposium aims to bring together researchers with focus on on-line or in situ detection of evolving defects and damage using AI and ML approaches in structures and materials of interest to solid mechanics community.
Organizers: Zhou Lei (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Duan Z. Zhang (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Summary: Recent advancements in particle-based methods have significantly enhanced the capabilities of multiscale and multiphysics modeling. Techniques such as molecular dynamics (MD), smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), meshfree methods, discrete element method (DEM), material point method (MPM), and combined finite-discret element method (FDEM) provide robust frameworks for simulating complex systems across various scales. These methods have been extensively applied in diverse fields, including microfluidics, biofluidics, multiphase flows, and material science. Key innovations include enhanced algorithms for particle interactions, improved computational efficiency, and novel approaches for coupling different physical phenomena. The integration of these advancements has resulted in more accurate and detailed simulations, offering deeper insights into the behavior of complex systems.
This symposium seeks to bring together researchers developing numerical methods for multiscale and multiphysics simulations with those utilizing particle-based methods to explore complex phenomena in these areas. We welcome investigations into multiphase flow, large material deformation, damage, fracture, and material responses with coupled thermal, mechanical, and chemical effects. We also encourage research on the coupling of particle-based methods with mesh-based methods. Additionally, we invite discussions on multi-scale simulation approaches and methods for transitioning microscale results into continuum models.
Organizers: Dr. Christopher S. Meyer (US Army Research Laboratory), Prof. Kedar Kirane (Stony Brook University), Dr. Reza Abedi (University of Tennessee)
Summary: Many brittle and quasi-brittle composite materials, and their constituents (fibers and matrix) are composed of structural elements at lower length scales. Mechanical response and damage behavior at higher length scales are governed by processes and mechanisms at lower length scales. Thus, analysis, design, and evaluation of these materials benefit from a multiscale approach to modeling and experiments to capture behavior resulting from structures at multiple scales. This symposium is focused on studies of mechanical and damage response of these brittle and quasibrittle materials. Emphasis is placed on modeling these materials at any length scale from the atomic scale through the continuum scale. Novel multiscale modeling methods that bridge the gap between length-scales are encouraged. Of interest are models and experiments investigating interface/interphase, meso- and micromechanical behavior, homogenization, atomistic to continuum scale modeling, multiscale modeling of damage and fracture, and novel approaches to coupling of length scales.
Organizers: Dr. Tyson Loudon (ARL), Rueben Kraft (Penn State), Amy Dagro (ARL)
Summary: The investigation of soft tissue mechanics during dynamic events is inherently complex due to the nonlinear behavior and heterogeneous microstructures of biological materials, which exhibit unique responses under varying strain rates and loading conditions. This symposium seeks to bridge the fields of computational mathematics, numerical analysis, and experimental mechanics by emphasizing the critical role of finite element modeling (FEM), multiscale modeling, and constitutive modeling in understanding these dynamics. FEM facilitates detailed simulations that capture the intricate interactions between microstructural components and macroscopic behavior, while multiscale modeling links molecular and tissue-level phenomena, providing a comprehensive view of how microstructural variations influence mechanical responses. Constitutive modeling is essential for characterizing the nonlinear effects observed in soft tissues, enabling accurate predictions of their behavior under dynamic loading scenarios such as blast impacts, ballistic events, and exposure to focused ultrasound or electromagnetic fields.
To submit an abstract, click here.
To view conference agendas from past years (including speakers), click here.
