continuum dislocation dynamics

The Materials Theory Group at the School of Materials Engineering of Purdue University has a post-doctoral opening in the area of Mesoscale Plasticity of Irradiated Crystalline Solids.

The postdoc will use discrete and continuum dislocation dynamics to investigate the deformation and fracture of structural alloys for fusion applications. A background in continuum mechanics and crystal plasticity is required for this position. The ideal candidate is one who is strongly interested in the fundamental aspects of deformation and fracture of materials and related computational modeling, and must have excellent programming skills in Fortran and/or C++. The Postdoc will interact with our group members and with our collaborators outside Purdue: Professors Grethe Winther and Henning Poulsen at the Technical University of Denmark who are performing synchrotron measurement of dislocation structures in deformed metals (see related research at https://pmp.dtu.dk/).

For inquiry about this position, please send an email to Professor Anter El-Azab (aelazab@purdue.edu). Interested candidates can send a curriculum vita with list of publications, half a page statement of research interests, and the names of two or three references to the email above.

The Materials Theory Group performs theoretical and computational research in the areas of mesoscale plasticity and dislocation dynamics, radiation effects in materials, microstructure evolution, phase field method development, phonon and electron thermal transport in crystalline solids, and computational methods for materials science and mechanics.

All qualified individuals, including diversity candidates are encouraged to apply.

In this paper a geometric field theory of dislocation dynamics and finite plasticity in single crystals is formulated. Starting from the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient into elastic and plastic parts, we use Cartan's moving frames to describe the distorted lattice structure via differential 1-forms. In this theory the primary fields are the dislocation fields, defined as a collection of differential 2-forms. The defect content of the lattice structure is then determined by the superposition of the dislocation fields.