Experience

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

  • 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 have implemented a strategy to supply High-Energy Diffraction Microscopy data to phase-field fracture simulations and are analyzing 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.

  • Theoretical investigation of stability of High-Entropy Oxides to Lithium intercalation:
    Advisor: Prof. Satyesh K. Yadav, IIT Madras
    Multi-component oxides, or oxides with multiple cations, possess interesting properties because of the interactions between the different cations. However, because of the number of elements, there is a lot of difficulty in understanding the underlying mechanisms. In this project, the objective was to better understand the utility of these oxides as electrode materials.

Conference Presentations

* indicates presenter

  • 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, DREAM.3D, Gmsh, ThermoCalc, LAMMPS, Vesta, Ovito, VASP.
  • Libraries: FFTW, HDF5