Shaofan Li

Li’s research focuses on developing physics-based phase-field modeling and simulation of fractures, computational methods for modeling and simulation of transmission and parthenogenesis process of infectious diseases, AI-based methods or statistic machine learning methods for 3D printing thermal compensation and inverse forensic analysis of car collision, and other engineering applications. His research group is dedicated to research conducted in the field of computational mechanics, focusing on soft matter mechanics, atomistic and multiscale simulation, computational nano-mechanics, and computational fracture mechanics. Here are a few of the research projects Li is currently working on below:

• Developing Machine-learning based Multiscale crystal defect dynamics (MCDD): Li’s research group has proposed a novel concept of geometrically compatible dislocation patterns and applied it to study nanoscale plasticity. They have been developing an atomistic-informed dislocation pattern theory and its computational formulations to model crystal plasticity.
• Con-current multiscale molecular dynamics: Li’s research group has been developing a con-current multiscale molecular dynamics to simulate the phase transformation of crystalline solids at the nanoscale. His research findings extended this theory to amorphous materials and use it to model and simulate plasticity in amorphous materials.
• Nonlocal fluid dynamics and Peridynamics: Li’s research group has applied mesh-free particle methods and peridynamics methods to simulate material and structure failure at multiscale. We have used mesh-free methods to simulate large-scale ductile failure in steel structures, and they have applied the peridynamics method to simulate soil fragmentation and fracture in metals, ceramics, concrete structures, and in ice sheets. As part of this research, they have developed a nonlocal fluid dynamic --- Updated Lagrangian Particle Hydrodynamics (ULPH) to model and simulate fluid flows from cough-jets to multiphase flow to fluid-structure interaction problems.