Experience

The following list contains brief descriptions of my recent research experience.

  • Chemo-Mechanical Modelling of Fracture in Li-ion Battery Electrode Materials:
    Advisor: Prof. Katsuyo Thornton, University of Michigan
    I am implementing phase-field fracture models with elastic anisotropy to study fracture mechanisms in Li-ion battery electrode materials. I am also interested in integrating machine learning and AI-driven methods into computational materials science workflows.

  • Assessment of phase-field models for brittle fracture in polycrystals:
    Advisor: Prof. Peter W. Voorhees, Northwestern University
    Phase-field fracture models are powerful technique because of their ability to capture complex crack morphologies without having to remesh and introduce ad-hoc criteria for crack nucleation. Since cracks interact with grain boundaries in polycrystals, it’s important to verify the phase-field models to make them useful for quantitative prediction of fracture. We implemented a strategy to supply High-Energy Diffraction Microscopy data to phase-field fracture simulations and analyzed the effect of elastic anisotropy on crack propagation in polycrystals.

  • Design of materials for Quantum Information Systems:
    Advisor: Prof. Peter W. Voorhees, Northwestern University
    Superconducting qubits (transmons) are currently being studied extensively to get closer to realizing quantum computers. We used a phase-field model to study phase separation at the Nb/Si interface in a transmon. Any presence of amorphous layers in these interfaces could lead to decoherence, and therby poor performance of the qubit.

  • Computational aspects of the dual grid VP-FFT formulation:
    Advisor: Prof. Anand K. Kanjarla, IIT Madras
    The micromechanical fields in polycrytals can be estimated using spectral methods that utilise the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). However, the computational grid must be uniform to perform FFTs. The dual-grid VP-FFT algorithm tries to circumvent this requirement by decoupling computations and material evolution.

Publications

  • J. M. Scherer, M. Ramesh, B. Bourdin, K. Bhattacharya, “Grain-size dependence of plastic-brittle transgranular fracture”, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 200, 106116, 2025.

  • R. Dingreville, A.E. Robertson, V. Attari, M. Greenwood, N. Ofori-Opoku, M. Ramesh, P. W. Voorhees, Q. Zhang, “Benchmarking machine learning strategies for phase-field problems”, Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 32, 065019, 2024.

Conference Presentations

* indicates presenter

  • M. Ramesh*, S. Gorske, B. Bourdin, K. Bhattacharya, K. T. Faber, P. W. Voorhees, “Using High-Energy Diffraction Microscopy and Tomography to Assess Phase-Field Fracture Models for Brittle Fracture”, TMS 2026, San Diego, CA, March 15–19, 2026.

  • M. Ramesh*, S. Gorske, B. Bourdin, K. Bhattacharya, K. T. Faber, P. W. Voorhees, “Evaluating phase-field simulations of brittle fracture in polycrystalline materials”, TMS 2025, Las Vegas, NV, March 23–27, 2025.

  • [Poster] M. Ramesh*, S. Gorske, B. Bourdin, K. Bhattacharya, K. T. Faber, P. W. Voorhees, “Evaluating singularity exponents from phase-field fracture simulations”, GRC Computational Materials Science, Newry, ME, July 20–26, 2024.

  • M. Ramesh*, S. Gorske, B. Bourdin, K. Bhattacharya, K. T. Faber, P. W. Voorhees, “Assessment of Phase-field Simulations of Brittle Fracture Using High Energy Diffraction Microscopy and Tomography”, TMS 2024, Orlando, FL, March 3–7, 2024.

  • M. Ramesh*, S. Gorske, J-M. Scherer, B. Bourdin, K. Bhattacharya, K. T. Faber, P. W. Voorhees, “Assessment of Phase-field Fracture Simulations of Brittle Fracture in Polycrystalline Materials”, TMS 2023, San Diego, CA, March 19–23, 2023

Skills

  • Languages: Python, C/C++, Fortran, MATLAB, Bash.
  • Tools: Git, Slurm, Open MPI, \(\LaTeX\), Jekyll, HTML/CSS.
  • Software: ParaView, mef90/vDef, PRISMS-PF, DREAM.3D, Gmsh, ThermoCalc, LAMMPS, Vesta, Ovito, VASP.
  • Libraries: FFTW, HDF5