The Computational Mechanics Research Laboratory or CMRL at the Ohio State University, is directed by Professor Somnath Ghosh, John B. Nordholt Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Materials Science & Engineering. CMRL activities are also supported by high performance computing staff, post-doctoral researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and a host of on and off-campus collaborators.
The Computational Mechanics Research Laboratory is currently involved in a large and diverse research program, based on the applications of Computational Mechanics to various problems of challenge. Various research thrust of CMRL include:
- Multiple Scale Modeling in Spatial and Temporal Domains
- Failure Modeling in Heterogeneous Materials and Structures with Experimental Verification
- Reliability, Fatigue and Failure in Metals and Composites
- Computational Nanotechnology: MD simulations and Quantum Mechanics
- Large Deformation Analysis with Contact
- Metal Forming and Casting Simulation and Design
- Adaptive Finite Element Analysis
- Biomaterials and Design of Bio-Implant and Prosthetics
A major thrust is in the field of multiple-scale modeling of behavior and failure of heterogeneous materials and manufacturing processes. This research has gained significant national and international recognition and has been cited extensively. CMRL members are involved in several interdisciplinary research programs with colleagues in other departments such as Materials Science & Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Radiology, Veterinary Sciences and Computer and Informational Science at the Ohio State University. Outside of the university, CMRL has active research collaborations with several industries and laboratories. These include ALCOA Technical Center, Daimler Chrysler Corporation, Ford Research Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, the Army Research Laboratory. Additionally, a number of international collaborations have also ensued, for example with faculty members at the University of Bordeaux in France, the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
Research activities of CMRL have been supported through external grants from federal agencies and industry, totaling over $9 M. The funding agencies include the National Science Foundation (including a National Young Investigator award, and GOALI awards), Army Research Office, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, NASA (URETI award), Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Energy and various industries like Aluminum Company of America, Ford Research Laboratory, Sun Microsystems, Daimler Chrysler Corporation, Scientific Forming Technology Corporation etc..
Researchers working in CMRL has made pioneering contributions to the field of integrated experimental- computational modeling of heterogeneous materials, e.g. composite materials, porous materials or alloy systems. They have worked with industry to develop methods of accurate microstructural representation and characterization. For microstructural modeling, they have developed the powerful Voronoi Cell Finite Element Method. They have coupled this with a hierarchical computational system to predict the evolution of damage across scales to initiate structural failure. The team has also applied these methods to multi-scale modeling of canine and human bones and design of prosthetic implants. They are involved in multidisciplinary research on reliability and fatigue of aircraft engine and automotive materials and in the design of manufacturing processes for defect reduction.
Professor Ghosh was the chairman of the organizing committee of NUMIFORM 2004, the 8th International Conference on Numerical Methods of Industrial Forming Processes held at the Ohio State University in June 2004. The CMRL team was responsible for organizing a truly outstanding conference. Professor Ghosh also organized an ARO Workshop on: and Design of New Engineered Materials and Systems with Applications at OSU in 2000. He was also a co- organizer of a conference on The Integration of Material, Process and Product Design in 1998.
Members of CMRL have been rewarded with many awards in the past. In 2004, Prof. Ghosh was awarded the John B. Nordholt Professorship in the College of Engineering at the Ohio State University. In 2001, he received the Harrison Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, by the Ohio State University. He has received the Lumley Research award for outstanding research at OSU three times in the past 10 years and the Lumley Interdisciplinary Research Award. He was elected an ASME fellow in 2000. He is currently a member of the executive council of US Association for Computational Mechanics. Prasanna Raghavan, an ex-Ph.D. student in CMRL and now at Intel Corp., won the prestigious Melosh Medal in 2003 for the best student paper in Computational Mechanics. Several student: Paul Eder, Prasanna Raghavan and Kyunghoon Lee won prizes at the annual Graduate Research Forum at OSU. Shawn Pearson, an undergraduate honors student won the 2nd prize at Denman UG Research contest at OSU in 2003.