Prof. Yuri Bazilevs
School of Engineering
Brown University

Breakthroughs in The Modeling of Shell Structures: From IGA to Peridynamics

ABSTRACT: The development of Isogeometric Analysis (IGA), with the aim of integrating Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) by means of employing mainly variational methods and smooth Spline discretizations to solve the governing partial differential equations of a physical system of interest, has led to a renaissance in the computational methods and technology development for thin shell structures. Thin shells here are understood as structures that have a much lower thickness compared to the local radius of curvature. In particular, a smooth Spline representation of surfaces, which is native to CAD software, has led to the development of Kirchhoff—Love shell theories where the shell kinematics is written purely in terms of the midsurface position or velocity degrees of freedom (DoFs). Transverse shear locking issues are circumvented and so is the use of rotational DoFs, making the resulting models more accurate and efficient, and, as a consequence, practical. This presentation will focus on the development in IGA-shell modeling, starting from the early results and transitioning to (very) recent developments and practical applications. The presentation will conclude by addressing a long-standing challenge of modeling fracture, with large deformation and disintegration, in shell structures using the framework of bond-associated Peridynamics with correspondence modeling.

BIOGRAPHY: Yuri Bazilevs is the E. Paul Sorensen Professor of the Mechanics of Solids and Structures in the School of Engineering at Brown University. He was previously a Professor and Vice Chair in the Structural Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego. Yuri is the original developer of Isogeometric Analysis (IGA), a new computational methodology that aims to integrate engineering design (CAD) and simulation (FEM). For his research contributions Yuri received a number of awards and honors, including the 2018 Walter E. Huber Research Prize from the ASCE, the 2020 Gustus L. Larson Award from the ASME, and the inaugural 2021 Centennial Mid-Career Award from the Materials Division of the ASME. He is included in the lists of Highly Cited Researchers, both in the Engineering (2015-2018) and Computer Science (2014-2019) categories. Yuri currently serves as the Chairman of the Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME and the President of the US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM).