Curriculum Vitae

Research Facilities

Dr. Vikas Tomar directs the multiphysics laboratory in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) at the University of Notre Dame. His current research focuses on combining nanoscale simulations and experiments to evaluate thermomechanics and structure formation analyses of high temperature structural materials such as Silicon Carbide-Silicon Nitride nanocomposites (SiC-Si3N4) for use in energy plants with greater energy conversion efficiency and to evaluate nanomechanics of biological systems such as bone tissue and cartilage in differing chemical environments and the corresponding structure-function related implications. His research is currently supported by United States-National Science Foundation (NSF) and United States-Department of Energy-National Energy Technology Laboratory (DoE-NETL) grants. For more information For further info visit: www.nd.edu/~vtomar.

Past Research

During his doctoral research, Dr. Tomar has worked on diverse research projects with focus on obtaining multiscale thermomechanical behavior of advanced composite materials such as multifunctional Al+Fe₂O₃ nanocrystalline composites and high-strength Al₂O₃/TiB₂ ceramic composites. His research on atomistic deformation analyses of Al+Fe₂O₃ multifunctional nanocomposites using classical molecular dynamics (MD) is one of the first in the area of atomistic deformation analyses of advanced composite nanomaterials. In this work he carried out large scale MD simulations of nanocrystalline Al+Fe₂O₃ multifunctional composites, of single crystalline Al, of single crystalline Fe₂O₃, and of various interfacial configurations of single crystalline Al and Fe₂O₃.

In the case of Al₂O₃/TiB₂ ceramic composite, Dr. Tomar has used cohesive finite element method (CFEM) for quantitative characterization of dynamic fracture. With this method explicit and comprehensive determination of fracture patterns on real experimental morphologies of the Al₂O₃/TiB₂ ceramic composites can be carried out. His version of CFEM has been used in determining the most suitable morphological constructions of the Al₂O₃/TiB₂ ceramic composite for desired range of fracture resistance properties. Dr. Tomar recently has combined second order perturbation stochastic method with CFEM to analyze stochasticity of fracture processes that arises as a result of measurement uncertainties in the properties of the constituents in the heterogeneous composite microstructures. Using this method, he has performed explicit dynamic fracture analyses on experimental morphologies of Al₂O₃/TiB₂ ceramic composite system with an account of stochasticity in the measured bulk and interfacial properties. He has been able to predict the variation in fracture resistance as a function of the variations in composite morphology and as a function of a given level of stochasticity in the material properties of the individual phases of the composites.

Current Research 

Dr. Tomar’s research area is highly interdisciplinary. Currently he is collaborating with the AME faculty in the areas of material design for synthetic development of future advanced materials, molecular level bone fracture modeling for advanced biomedical material development, nanoelectromechanical (NEMS) systems development with excellent heat dissipation characteristics, and modeling of advanced high temperature structural composite development for future earth and space based power generation systems. He is actively engaged in both undergraduate and graduate research activities in AME. He teaches undergraduate “mechanics of materials” and graduate “advanced mechanics of solids” courses. In addition, he is actively engaged in developing a new course for teaching “multiscale modeling of advanced nanomaterials”. Currently, he is working in the following projects:

1. Fracture and Creep Analyses of Advanced Ceramic Matrix Nanocomposites for Use in High-temperature Structural applications; (Funded by US-DoE and US-NSF)
2. Chemo-Bio-Mechano Issues in Biological Tissue Mechanics
3. Multiphysics of Nano-Bio Energy Generator Materials

Professional Service

Guest-Editor: 2007-2008 Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling, Mechanics Research Communications, An Elsevier Journal

Organized: Materials Research Society (MRS) Symposia On “Coupled Thermal, Electrical, and Mechanical Behavior of Nanomaterials” (March 24-28, 2008, San-Francisco) IX US National Congress on Computational Mechanics Symposia on “Advances in multiphysics behavior, fracture, and plasticity analyses at the nanoscale” (July, 2007 San-Francisco)

Chaired/Co-Chaired: Chaired a session on “Fracture and Damage Analysis for Composite Structures” at the “2nd International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation” Dec. 08-10, 2006 Guwahati-India Co-chaired a session on failure in biological materials at the ASME-IMECE 2007, Seattle Washington, 2007

Volunteered: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) – Applied Mechanics Division/Fracture Mechanics and Failure Technical Committee

Member: ASME, American Physical Society (APS), MRS, and American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Reviewer for: ASME Journal of Applied Mechanics, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, ASME Transactions Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, ASME Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, AIP Journal of Applied Physics, Elsevier CALPHAD journal, Materials Research Society Proceedings-Fall 2006, THEOCHEM, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Mechanics Research Communications, Langmuir, International Journal of Damage Mechanics, and Engineering Fracture Mechanics

Noted Achievements

Nano-Science and Technology (NaST) fellowship (2003-2004) recipient at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Woodruff Fellowship for the highest score in mechanical engineering PhD qualifying exams (Spring 2002) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Fellowships for highest scores in mechanical engineering graduate program and applied mechanics graduate program at Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, India (2001)

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) fellowship award by the Federal Republic of Germany for graduate level research work, Uni-Stuttgart (2000-2001)

Best academic score fellowship and HMT gold medal winner for being first in class in mechanical engineering undergraduate program at National Institute of Technology-Kurukshetra, India (1994-1998)

National scholarship award for years 1992 and 1994 for academic excellence, India

Teaching

Advanced Mechanics of Solids (Spring 2006, Fall 2006) - seniors and 1st year graduate students

Mechanics of Solids (Spring 2007, Spring 2008) - sophomore students

Molecular Methods in Modeling Materials (Fall 2007) - 2nd year graduate students 

Selected Recent Publications

Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling, Mechanics Research Communications, Volume 35, Issues 1-2, January-March 2008 (Guest Editor).

Mejia-Rodriguez, G., Renaud, J.E., and Tomar V., 2008, A variable fidelity model management framework for designing multiphase materials, to appear in the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design.

Tomar, V., 2008, Analyses of the role of the second phase SiC particles in microstructure dependent fracture resistance variation of SiC-Si3N4 nanocomposites, Modelling Simul. Mater. Sci. Eng. 16 (2008) 035001

Dubey, D. K., and Tomar, V., 2007, Microstructure dependent dynamic fracture analyses of trabecular bone based on nascent bone atomistic simulations, Mechanics Research Communications-Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling, Vol 35/1-2 pp 24-31

Tomar, V., 2007, Modeling of dynamic fracture and damage in 2-Dimensional trabecular bone microstructures using the cohesive finite element method, To appear in the ASME J. Biomechanical Engg.

Tomar, V., 2007, Accelerating the molecular timesteps for nanomechanical simulations: The hybrid Monte Carlo Method, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 101, pp 103512 (1-9).

Direct comments, questions, and corrections to amedept@nd.edu