Physical and Computational Sciences
and Engineering

March 2006 Mission
Kenneth Daratha
V.S. Manoranjan
Sinisa Mesarovic
M. Grant Norton
WenZhan Sony

May 2005 Mission
J. Daniel Dolan
Peter Engels
Robert R. Lewis
Cole C. McDaniel

Dr. Sinisa Mesarovic,
joined Washington State University in 2001 as an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University in 1996, conducting graduate work on fracture mechanisms in ductile metallic crystal and on dynamic strain ageing in metallic alloys. He was a research associate at University of Cambridge, England from 1996 through 1999, studying contact and adhesion between inelastic solids and powder metallurgy. From 1990-2001 he was a senior scientist at the University of Virginia, working on models for explosive crystallization of thin films as the physical mechanisms for nanolithography.

School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Sinisa Mesarovic
Multi-scale Modeling: Between large and small, discrete and continuous

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Dr. Mesarovic’s research focuses on multiscale modeling of materials. Traditional engineering models were practical, one-scale models used to fit most engineering problems. As the industrial focus shifted from traditional engineering problems—first to micro-scale problems, then to nanotechnology—traditional modeling and analysis tools became inadequate. Yet fine scale models (e.g., atomistic, dislocations, particles) are often computationally prohibitive when applied to real configurations. The accurate, efficient solution of such problems requires new methods of multiscale modeling and simulation.

Dr. Mesarovic focuses on four problems related to these questions. First, he is concerned with how to pass information from a coarse-scale model to a fine-scale one. In this case, a small piece of polycrystal (cut out of a larger bulk) is subjected to a given average shear strain (Fig. 1) to determine the mathematically correct way to impose strain without imposing additional undesirable constraints. Recently, he developed the minimal kinematic boundary conditions, which provide the answer to the above conundrum. He is also considering how

information passes from a discrete model to a continuous one by examining granular material as point masses interacting by contact forces (Fig. 2).

Dr. Mesarovic is also concerned with the appropriate coarse model for plastic deformation of small crystals, accomplished by motion of dislocations. As structural components grow smaller (e.g., microelectronics and MEMS), such motion is obstructed and dislocations pile-up against the obstacles. These high-energy configurations make small volumes harder than the large ones. Classical theory of plasticity, created for large volumes, cannot account for that effect. Starting from dislocation mechanics, Dr. Mesarovic has developed a new continuum theory, applicable to small and large volumes..

Contact Information
Sinisa Mesarovic, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Washington State University
PO Box 642920
Pullman, WA 99164-2920

Telephone: 509-335-7936
E-mail: smesarovic@wsu.edu