This site reports research and teaching activities of Gianluca Cusatis who leads the Mechanics of Quasi-Brittle Materials group at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Splitting failure in compression
Our overarching research goal is to understand, simulate, and predict the behavior of quasi-brittle materials. Typical quasi-brittle include, but are not limited to, concrete, cementitious composites, sea-ice, cohesive and frozen solis, and toughened ceramics. Nevertheless, a wide variety of other materials (e.g. macromolecular based polymers, biomaterials, and nanomaterials) feature quasi-brittle behavior when analyzed at length scales (micro- and nano-scale) smaller than the usual engineering scale (macro-scale).
Recently, we have been developing various computational technologies for the simulation of the mechanical behavior of quasi-brittle materials under extreme loading conditions, such as projectile penetration and blast loading. The ultimate objective is to make available to the engineering community model based simulation tools that will improve the performance of structures to mane-made and natural hazards.
Additional information on our research activity can be found in the RESEARCH page and in the research posts reporting projects, sponsors, selection of invited lectures, and research highlights. More in-depth discussion of our work is described in our PUBLICATIONS.
You may also want to check out the biosketches of our group members
I.1 Gianluca’s Biosketch
I.2 Graduate Research Assistants
I.3 Undergraduate Research Assistants
I.5 Research Group Photos