Controlling Elastoplastic Deformation in Amorphous Solids: Leveraging Many-Body Particle Interactions for Energy Landscape and Dissipation Modulation

NSF Award Search · 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $783,729 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

This research project aims to advance fundamental understanding of the deformation behavior of amorphous solids with many-body interactions among constituent particles. Unlike crystalline materials, amorphous solids such as metallic glasses and granular systems exhibit complex, non-crystalline structures and deformation mechanisms that are not captured by conventional models based on binary interactions. In many-body systems, the interaction between two particles can be influenced by the presence of a third — a phenomenon common in biological tissues and social networks but not yet well understood in the context of amorphous solids. This project seeks to extract governing physics from simulations and experiments of amorphous systems with many-body interactions and develop new solid mechanics models to predict their behavior. The outcomes seek to to impact a wide range of applications, including adaptive metamaterials, two-dimensional materials, and damage-tolerant structural materials. Educational activities include hands-on demonstrations, curriculum integration, and public outreach aimed at fostering future scientists and engineers. The technical objective is to quantify how many-body interactions influence deformation through the lens of energy landscape complexity. Atomistic simulations and machine learning–assisted analyses will be used to study emergent features in the energy landscape while systematically tuning many-body interactions. These findings look to be vali

Key facts

NSF award ID
2519512
Awardee
Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor (MI)
SAM.gov UEI
GNJ7BBP73WE9
PI
Hongyi Xiao
Primary program
01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
SOLID MECHANICS, MATERIALS DESIGN
Estimated total
$783,729
Funds obligated
$783,729
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
09/01/2025 → 08/31/2028