Principal Investigator Kenneth Kamrin
Project Website http://web.mit.edu/kkamrin/www/
The Kamrin group research focuses broadly on continuum mechanics, with an emphasis on highly-deforming bulk materials such as granular materials, viscous fluids, and compliant elastic solids. Continuum modeling, when applicable, can offer predictive power in a fraction of the time needed for full micro-level discrete simulation. We aim to improve capabilities in the continuum by developing novel computational methods and material laws. A significant motivational theme is to understand problems that combine fluid- and solid-like behaviors, either geometrically (as in fluid/structure interaction), or constitutively (as in viscoplastic material flow).
Some broad areas of ongoing research include: Constitutive modeling, simulation, and homogenization of amorphous materials; simulation methods for finite-deformation solid laws; reduced-dimensional models for thin materials of general rheophysical behavior; and mobility theory of viscous flows over textured surfaces.